Many started speculating about the possibility of a 4-inch iPhone when a guy named Colin made a very interesting argument for such a device one week ago. The rumor mill has been saying for months that a larger iPhone is coming, but no one had really thought about how it would actually work. Colin proposed that Apple would need to simply change the aspect ratio from 3:2 to a stretchy 16:9. Brilliant, right?
Not so fast. There are multiple reasons why an elongated iPhone screen would not work.
When the iPhone launched, “pundits” said that it would fail thanks to the lack of a physical keyboard. Then the iPad debuted to the same knee-jerk whine. Years passed, and tens of millions of units were sold, yet there are still people who think they want a keyboard to take up half the face of their device, all the time. For you, my dear Luddite friends, there is the TK-MBD041, a tiny Bluetooth keyboard that will mimic your precious (and tiny) BlackBerry buttons, and packs a special secret function (spoiler – it works as a phone handset).
BYOD programs are popping in workplaces of virtually every shape and size. One of the big advantages of these programs is that you can decide what kind of mobile device (iPhone, iPad, or other device) and what apps make the most sense for your job and how you work. Some companies even offer reimbursement of some of the expenses associated with using your personal tech in the office – an example being your iPhone or iPad’s data plan (or a portion of it).
That sense of freedom is very empowering, but it often comes with the tradeoff of your company’s IT department enrolling your device in a mobile management system. This means that certain features of your device are likely to be restricted for security purposes. It also means that your company will be able to monitor and track how you use your iPhone or iPad and can wipe data remotely at any point.
Yesterday, Microsoft announced its Windows 8 product lineup. The lineup includes just three editions as opposed to Windows 7 and Vista, which offered twice as many options though some were targeted at developing and niche markets. In addition to streamlining the overall offerings, Microsoft also drew a sharper line between Windows 8 for desktop, notebook, and tablet PCs with x86/64 processors and Windows for ARM-based tablets.
If the dividing line between a full-fledged version of Windows and a version designed for low cost tablets seems vaguely familiar to you, it’s because the strategy is pretty similar to the distinction between Apple’s OS X for Macs and iOS for iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches.
In fact, the entire desktop and mobile lineup that Microsoft is developing seems to borrow pretty heavily from Apple’s playbook.
Apple has filed for all sorts of patents related to 3D technologies over the years, sparking speculation that the company will one day bring us 3D-capable Macs and iOS devices. But evidence that it’s about to get serious about 3D technology for iOS devices comes from a recent job listing on its website for a “Computer Vision specialist to strengthen its multi-view stereo research group.”
Quickoffice announced its new cloud service known as Connect at the end of last month. The service is designed to sync Microsoft Office documents between your iOS devices, Android devices, Macs, and PCs. It’s an extension to the Quickoffice apps for iOS and other mobile platforms that offer the ability to create, edit, and view Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files on the go.
Connect by Quickoffice is now available from the App Store and it’s a very slick app and a great addition for any iOS user or mobile professional.
Next time you’re making a flight through Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport you might want to keep your iPad in your carry-on rather than leave it in your luggage. Or hope Transportation Security Administration agent Clayton Dovel isn’t on duty that day – which he probably won’t be because he just got busted for stealing a bunch of iPads from travelers’ luggage.
[UPDATE: See the end of the post for a possible solution, which works for some people.]
Many iPad 3 users are experiencing a bug which kills their 3G connection every time they connect to a Wi-Fi network. The cellular connection looks normal, with the carrier name, the 3G logo and reception bars, but when you try to do anything that requires a connection, it either times out or throws the error messages “Could not activate cellular data network.”
I am having the exact same problem, and here’s what’s happening.
If, like many people, you find Mondays just too much to cope with, you might want to avoid today’s app. It’s not the sort of thing that’s going to make your Monday feel any better, and in some cases it will just fry your brain until next Monday. Which would be a shame, because you’d miss out on a whole weekend.
Be forewarned, then: The Fourth Dimension is an app which will mess with your head. Deliberately. Even though the aim is education and expansion of knowledge, it will still mess with your head. You will emerge from the experience only fractionally the wiser, and quite a lot more confused than you were at the beginning. Don’t worry, this is perfectly normal.
Oh man. I wasn’t going to write anything about the Comfe Hands iPad grip(s), as they just look too awkward and bulky to carry just to fit to the iPad when you need them. But then I accidentally scrolled down the page and saw the image you now see above this post. It is titled simply “pointer” and it epitomizes everything I love about stock photography and catalog photography in general.
Despite the fact that competitors like Rdio have had one for ages, It’s taken Spotify frickin’ forever to release an official iPad app. That may be about to end though, as a Swedish technology journalist has just posted the above screenshot of what appears to be Spotify’s official iPad app… perhaps not-so-coincidentally ahead of a special announcement Spotify has planned for Wednesday.
Let’s hope it is the official app: it’s far past time, and applying a Twitter-like pane approach to the app is actually pretty brilliant. This app actually looks worth the wait.
Cyclists: Imagine that you could buy a speaker that combined the Bluetooth-connected, rubbery boxiness of JawBone’s JamBox speaker with the stretchy go-anywhere strap-and hook of Knog’s bike lights and cyclocomputers. Well, imagine no more, for a mere $70 will get you a SleekSpeak, a handlebar-mounted bike speaker over on Kickstarter.
Recently, we’ve been highlighting some of the major partnerships that are beginning to form between mobile management and mobile/cloud services vendors. These partnerships are strategic and aim to enable IT workflows that better secure, support, and monitor iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices than what any one company could offer. So far, these partnerships and the integration of solutions that they offer haven’t included Apple or the basic management tools that Apple makes available for free – until now.
Mac and iOS management provider JAMF has posted a guide to integrating the company’s signature solution with Apple’s free Configurator tool to streamline iOS deployment.
Apple is reportedly gearing up to launch its much-anticipated “iPad mini” during the third quarter of 2012 in an effort to “counter attack” the upcoming Windows 8 tablets. The 7.85-inch device is expected to cost between $249 and $299, which will also allow it to compete with cheaper Android devices from the likes of Amazon.
Braven’s new Bluetooth speakers are like feature packed JamBoxes, only with a slightly more confusing product lineup. They are all marked by a great 12-20-hour battery life, can also be used to charge your USB-powered gadgets and — here’s the neat part — can be daisy-chained together using their 3.5mm audio-in and audio-out jacks.
Exactly one month after the device made its debut in the U.S. on March 16, the new iPad will arrive in South Korea and 11 additional countries this week.
We were hugely exited for SoulCalibur when the classic fighter made its debut on iOS back January. And while we were very impressed by Namco Bandai’s efforts, like many reviewers, we were disappointed by the lack of any multiplayer modes. After all, that’s what fighting games are all about, right?
Thankfully, Namco has now rectified that with an update that brings local multiplayer over Bluetooth… except for the iPod touch.
In Ray Bradbury’s dystopian sci-fi classic Fahrenheit 451, books are outlawed by the government in the 24th century.
According to Bradbury, this imagined ban didn’t happen overnight. It was preceded by gradual trivialization of information in general. People increasingly preferred TV sound-bites and frivolous, out-of-context nuggets of information over reasoned argument and well-researched books about important ideas.
Eventually, writers and readers of books became so culturally marginalized that it was easy for the government to just eliminate them and their work by burning down any home or building that contained books.
Bradbury’s nightmare is in fact happening, and way ahead of schedule.
Spotify is a wonderful platform for streaming music and sharing playlists with your friends, but the service’s lack of an official iPad app has been a great disappoint for Apple users. Spotify’s main competitor, Rdio, boasts a beautiful iPad app that lets its users browse and play music.
Spotify has been saying that an official iPad app is coming for over a year, but the trail has grown cold for many months. There are no unofficial Spotify for iPad app alternatives in the App Store at the moment. But it looks like that’s going to change soon.
One of the traditional ways for IT professionals to highlight their knowledge of specific technologies and technical concepts is through the acquisition of certifications. There are a number of vendor-crafted certifications available as well as vendor-neutral certifications that illustrate competence in various technical disciplines like troubleshooting and repair, security, healthcare, and overall network management. Certifications have never guaranteed a job in and of themselves, but they do help candidates sell themselves to recruiters and IT managers.
One of the many challenges with the consumerization of IT, mobility, and cloud services trends is that they are dramatically shifting the skill sets required to succeed in the IT field. As a result, the perceived value of certifications has fluctuated as softer skills like business integration and project management have become more desirable. The need for professionals that have extremely specialized skills is being surpassed by the need for IT generalists.
It seems that every week for the past few months, there’s been at least one or two announcements of app developers, cloud service providers, and mobile management vendors developing strategic partnerships to create or integrate their products into a single unified workflow.
Box’s OneCloud initiative, in which the storage provider teamed up with more than two dozen app developers to create seamless workflows for several different business and productivity tasks, is probably the biggest example of this trend. Others include Quickoffice launching its own cloud service as well as integrating with Accellion’s kitedrive, LogMeIn’s new Cubby service, and CloudOn’s virtualized version of Microsoft Office that integrates with Box and Dropbox for storage.
We’ve long been in love with Italian design house Ciccarese Design’s incredible renders of upcoming Apple products, and the images they just sent us of what they envision a 7.85-inch iPad mini would look like in the flesh are no exception. No implausible whimsy here: these could just as well be product shots pushed up on Apple’s site the day after the iPad mini is officially announced by Tim Cook later this summer, and really puts the totally usable size of such a device in perspective. Check out some more after the jump.
There are a number of fields and professions in which mobile professionals share a pool of mobile devices. For companies with field agents, sales people, and marketing professionals, the need for each user to have a dedicated device may not be the most economical option and a better approach can be to simply configure a number of iPads with similar specs that users or teams can check out when they go on the road.
This shared iPad model can be a way to implement the iPad while reducing overall expense. One challenge, however, is that a business typically needs to provide mobile Internet access for individuals or small teams – something that can be a pricey proposition.
Apple’s Q2 2012 financial earnings call is on April 24th, and if history is any guide, it’s going to see Apple announce all new record earnings and another huge jump in stock price.
Now Piper-Jeffray analyst Gene Munster is piping in, and not only are his estimates higher than Wall Street consensus, but that Apple could have sold 33 million iPhones and 12 million iPads this quarter. Not too shabby, considering the new iPad was on sale for only two weeks before the fiscal quarter ended.
Mobile technology is playing an ever bigger role in the workplace. According to a recent study by IT training and certification giant CompTIA, 84% of knowledge workers use an iPhone or other smartphone for at least some work tasks on a daily basis – unsurprisingly email and using web-based services ranked as the most common and universal uses.
Despite that level of use, the survey – which didn’t break out numbers for corporate-owned versus employee-owned devices – found that only 22% of businesses have an official policy regarding the use of mobile technology. An additional 20% indicated that they are exploring options for mobility policies but haven’t yet completed them.