iPad - page 231

Today Apple unveiled its digital textbook software for the iPad and Mac. We’ve covered every aspect of the announcement, including the event’s three main releases: iBooks 2, iBooks Author for Mac, and the iTunes U app.

While Steve Jobs mentioned his desire to revolutionize the textbook industry in Walter Isaacson’s official biography, Apple has been relatively silent about its plans to take the education market by storm. As it turns out, the company’s dream for digital textbooks comes from a student intern’s pitch in 2008.

Eager to try the new iBooks Author tools? Better have an iPad. In fact, even if you do have one, you can’t even preview what your e-book will look like on an iPad itself without connecting the device to your computer.

What a bummer. That’s convoluted, and cuts right out authors who want to publish their e-books through the iBookstore without necessarily spending $499 on a device first. Considering there’s already an iOS simulator as part of Apple’s development tools package, why didn’t they just hook iBooks Author’s preview functionality up to that?

[Thanks for the tip, Roger!]

Have you ever arrived at the office and realized that report you need for the meeting today is still on your Mac at home? I’m sure that at some point we have all needed access to our home computer while we’re away from home, and it’s actually a lot easier than you might think thanks to the free LogMeIn app for iOS.

Apple’s Phil Schiller has just taken the stage at the Guggenheim in New York City, and he’s here to reiterate what many of us have never forgotten from our days on old Apple IIe’s in the classroom: education is important to Apple. “Today’s event is about education,” says Schiller. “And education is deep in Apple’s DNA.” “Apple’s entire education business is based on teaching, learning, and student achievement. Try to bring the same passion they bring to every product into education business, too.” Schiller’s here to bring the iPad more forcefully to the classroom, to use the iPad as a tool to get American kids back to the forefront of reading, math and science. Could today’s event launch the second iPad revolution: the education revolution? [image via Macworld]

Aside from last year’s predictions for an all-new iPhone 5, case manufacturers have traditionally been a good source of information for forthcoming Apple devices. Take the iPad 2, for example. We had a good idea what the device would look like before it launched thanks to cases produced by several Chinese manufacturers.

It’s no surprise to us, then, that manufacturers are already building cases for the third-generation iPad, but what do they say about Apple’s next device? Well, it’ll be called the “iPad 2S,” rather than the “iPad 3,” according to this particular manufacturer. And it’ll look much the same as the iPad 2, only 1mm thicker.

Jailbreakers can bring Apple’s Cover Flow effect to their iOS docks with a new tweak called Overflow. Created by App Store and jailbreak developer Adam Bell, Overflow works with tweaks like Infinidock and Springtomize to let you easily scroll through docked apps like album covers in the Music app.

AT&T has been forcing the same crappy $25 for 2GB plan down everyone’s throat since June 2010, but now they’re upgrading it for the first time. Starting Sunday, AT&T will be upgrading all their new smartphone data plans with larger data allocations… and larger prices. Yes, pay-by-the-month iPad users, that means you too.

Some bits and bobs of tech just never seem to go away entirely no matter how much tech you own, and just as you always need to have a printer around for that rare printout, there’s always a need to have access to a scanner to digitize the stray scrap of paper or mottled receipt.

With so many people now ditching their laptops for iPads, the iConvert aims to fill a niche. Featyring a front feeder adjustable from between 2- and 8.5-inches wide, the iConvert can scan almost anything normal sized you throw at it, and digitize them directly to your iPad’s picture folder as 300 DPIs.

Pretty swank for the mobile road warrior looking to keep his portfolio of documents as svelte as his iPad 2. Couple this with an OCR app, you’re all set. $150 when it goes on sale in February, courtesy of Brookstone.

I’m undoubtedly the least musically inclined person I know, which makes me furiously jealous as I watch my guitar playing friends pick up a guitar and serenade girls à la John Mayer. I need to learn how to play guitar, which is why I’m excited about this new iPad guitar accessory we came across at CES.  Ion Audio, makers of the iCade iPad arcade machine, unveiled their newest accessory that helps users perfect their guitar shredding chops on the iPad, so that even those of us without musical talent can look cool playing guitar.

When your company is 120-years-old and synonymous with the light bulb, it can be difficult convincing prospective workers that you’re hip and with it. But GE thinks it has what it takes: the iPhone. An executive says its support of the Apple handset helps new employees see the global conglomerate as a ‘contemporary company.’

I rather like the look of these handmade wooden iPad stands from Woodpad here in the UK.

If you need information from Wikipedia, you’d best get it very quickly; in just a few hours, at 9 P.M. PST (5:00 UTC for our European readers), a coalition of sites across the web — including Wikipedia’s English site, Boing Boing and Reddit — will go dark for a day, displaying this page instead of their usual home pages.

The suspense is nearly unbearable. After weeks and weeks of waiting for the iPhone 4S/iPad 2 untethered jailbreak, the release is only days away.

We’ve heard plenty of scams involving Apple’s coveted iOS devices before, but this one may take the cake. Could you imagine walking into your local Best Buy, buying a $500 iPad, then taking it home to find that you actually purchased a slab of model clay instead?

As many as 10 clay iPads have been sold in their original packaging at Future Shop and Best Buy stores in Vancouver, Canada.

Here at the business desk, we love to hear ways companies are falling head-over-heels for the iPad. The latest is a survey finding Apple’s tablet is all work in the office. Employees use the iPad for business more than 90 percent of the time, refuting concerns the device would be tied up flinging angry birds at all those smug pigs.

Apple’s iPad 3 is expected to make its debut early this year, but it may not be the end of the much-loved iPad 2.

According to the company’s plans for display panel shipments, the iPad 2 is certainly not about to meet its demise. Instead, Apple may follow the same steps it has taken with the iPhone 4 and offer its second-generation iPad alongside the new model as a cheap $299 alternative — allowing it to compete with Amazon’s budget Kindle Fire tablet.

In the latest chapter from the Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight, Intel and Microsoft chase profits over a cliff. Unable to agree, the two companies created a rival tablet that costs more than the iPad and will likely hasten the move to ARM. The Wintel team is back at it snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

It happens to us all: frozen app. Yes, frozen app, the frustrating condition that causes your iPhone or iPad to suddenly seize up, forcing you to do a full restart because even your home button has stopped working.

Now while the causes of frozen app are varied, you can remedy its foul presence in two easy steps.

While this may not be quite as awesome as that NES controller concept for the iPhone we showed you last week, it’s still pretty amazing. Paul Rickards, a blogger behind biosrhythm, has hacked a NES controller to work with iCade games on his iPad using a Camera Connection Kit.

Have you ever wondered what kind of data speeds you get on your iPhone with a full 3G signal, or how fast your internet is on your home Wi-Fi network? With the free iOS app from Speedtest.net, you can perform a quick and simple test that will tell you your download and your upload speeds on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Namco’s classic arcade fighter SoulCalibur is finally making its way to the App Store this week. Having been announced way back in October, we’ve been itching to get our hands on it for three months now, and we’ll be one of the first to grab it when it arrives on Thursday, January 19.

Fed up of seeing updates in the App Store for apps that you do not want to update? Unfortunately most of us just have to put up with them, but if you’ve got a jailbroken device, you can use the Update Hider for iOS 5 tweak to hide them away.

The entire jailbreaking community has its eyes on Pod2g and his “Dream Team” of fellow hackers right now, anticipating their exploit for Apple’s A5-powered devices. The team recently revealed that the it was just “a matter of days” away from public release, and today we have a video of a jailbroken iPhone 4S in action.

Apple’s most direct competitor in the future won’t be Microsoft or Google, but Amazon.com.

With the release of the Amazon Kindle Fire, Amazon.com declared war directly on Apple’s core business model, which is to sell integrated solutions for the consumption and creation of digital content.

Starting Thursday, Apple strikes back.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple’s next-generation iPad will feature a quad-core processor and LTE/4G data speed capability. The tablet has reportedly entered production and is slated for a March launch.

According to the report, the iPad 3 will feature a hi-res display, faster processor, and compatibility with LTE. Full production is expected to begin in February for an official launch the following month.