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BYOD is certainly one of the biggest technology buzzwords right now. The concept of users supplying their own iPad, iPhone, or even their own MacBook can create challenges for IT, but it can also provides advantages. Users choosing the devices and apps that they feel most comfortable and productive using is one. Businesses not needing to pay for mobile devices themselves or plans to support them is another.

One of the basic assumptions when it comes to considering, testing, and implementing a BYOD program is that the ability to bring personal tools into the workplace is something that users ultimately want and think will improve their work. The rest of the discussion, including practical issues like device or data management and the range of devices to be support, is predicated on this core assumption that BYOD is desirable on the part of users.

But what if that isn’t really the case? According to a report based on research in Australia and New Zealand, that may not be the case and it may actually be a form of peer pressure driving the BYOD revolution more than pressure from users.

Apple has released Safari 5.1.5 in Software Update with a fix for those running the browser in 32-bit mode. The small update doesn’t have any known changes other than the 32-bit fix, and it weighs in at a slim 46.4 MB. The update will still require you to restart your computer, sadly. The last public release of Safari was version 5.1.4 on March 12th.

Safari 5.2 is currently in the hands of developers. The next major iteration to Apple’s browser includes great Mountain Lion features like iCloud tabs, a unified address bar, and more.

Good battery life is essential for a mobile device to succeed in the post-PC era, and Apple’s iOS devices continue to pack upgraded internals and improved battery technology into every product iteration. iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users can use a handful of tips and tricks for conserving precious battery on the go. Many of the tips are pretty basic, but every little bit counts when you’re trying to make it through the day on one charge.

Here’s a roundup of tips and tricks for saving battery life on your favorite iOS device:

Apple recently announced the winner of its 25 billionth App Store download contest. Fu Chunli from Qingdao, China won a $10,000 iTunes gift card for downloading the free Where’s My Water? iPhone game.

After she won, Apple flew her to the Beijing to accept her award. Chunli was escorted to Apple’s Chinese corporate headquarters and then taken to the Sanlitun Apple store to accept her gift card and talk to the press.

https://youtu.be/AcZOpKZLnV8

This video is old — it hails from the original iPad’s 2010 debut — but it’s still a gorgeous piece of eye candy: a 3D, CGI tour through 35 years of Apple product design. Absolutely stunning.

[via The Loop]

It doesn’t take a huge stretch of imagination to picture some of the ways that the iPad can be used in the workplace. The idea of it as a sales tool, an electronic medical chart, and as a digital textbook device all come immediately to mind as common on-the-job iPad uses. But the iPad’s versatility lends itself to a variety of industries and jobs that you’ve probably never considered.

One example is agriculture management from the cab of a farm combine – one of the unexpected places to find the iPad that Hard Candy Cases CEO Tim Hickman mentioned to me during a recent conversation. His company, which also produces the ruggedized Gumdrop Cases, has received bulk orders for iPad from some surprising sources and has led to iPad adoption  in places beyond where most of us would expect. I decided to follow up on that conversation with some research of my own.

With all of the questions surrounding the new iPad’s battery life and heat temperatures, users will be comforted to learn that Apple’s latest tablet can serve as a mobile LTE hotspot for a staggering 25.3 hours. That means you could technically use your iPad’s Personal Hotspot feature for more than a day on a single charge.

Popular multitasking tweak CardSwitcher has been updated to version 2.0 in Cydia for iOS 5. If you remember Palm and the webOS platform, the look and feel of CardSwitcher will be very familiar. For jailbroken iPhones, this slick tweak brings the card-like multitasking environment of webOS to iOS.

If you want a change of pace from the tiny app switcher Apple has implemented when you double tap your Home button, CardSwitcher 2.0 is something you want to consider. There’s also an included multitasking interface that iPad users will enjoy.

Earlier this year Apple announced iTunes U, making it clear that Apple intends to make the iPad ubiquitous in academia. The iPad is truly coming into its own as a legitimate alternative to the PC. For students, this means that the iPad is quickly becoming a powerful learning tool, which is good for a lot more than reading.

I sat down with a Boston-based PhD student who, for the past year, has been using her iPad nearly exclusively for her studies. Here are the core peripherals and apps that she recommends in order to supercharge your iPad for use in the academic setting.

One of the big fears CIOs and IT staffers have about the consumerization of IT and BYOD trends is that mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone combined with personal cloud services like iCloud, Google Docs, and Dropbox make it very easy for confidential business data to leave the office and the company network.While this is a definite fear for IT staff, how do most knowledge workers view the risk and the consequences of such so-called data sprawl?

According to a recent study, four out of five workers rank removing confidential data from the office as an offense that should get a person fired and yet 90% believe that it happens on a regular basis.

You know all about the new iPad’s retina display and how ridiculously gorgeous pictures and retina graphics look on the shiny new screen, but what about video? The 1080p resolution of HD videos is great and all that, but the new iPad has a 2048p resolution, which means even if you’re watching a high-def video there are still a lot of pixels that aren’t utilized to their full potential. We wanted to know what video will look like on our new tablet once ultra-hd videos become more popular, and even though 2048p clips are scare, we found five videos that showcase just how awesome online videos are going to look on the new iPad really soon.

We’ve shown you a couple collections of Retina-ready wallpapers for your new iPad already, but you haven’t seen some of the best photos available until you check out John Carey’s work. Many of you may already be fans of Carey’s blog/wallpaper site fiftyfootshadows.net. He’s been posting 100% original wallpapers there for desktops, iPhones, iPads, etc. for quite awhile.

Carey recently updated some of his best wallpapers for the iPad’s glorious Retina display. You won’t be disappointed with what he has to offer.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgsCKeIXUXc

The video above is probably enough to make iPad 3 owners rush out and buy a copy of AirServer for your big-screen Mac. It shows the difference in the speed of video mirroring natively to the the Apple TV 3 and mirroring to the Mac using AirServer. The first is dreadfully laggy. The second is like playing with a wired controller. But that’s not all: The newest version of AirServer processes the video before displaying it, making for much better results on the big screen.

Update: And just like that, Microsoft has decided to do the right thing and award Sahas his prize.

Microsoft concocted a brilliant marketing campaign where they challenge mobile users to complete various tasks faster than a Windows phone. Any contestant able to “smoke” a Windows phone with their current mobile phone will be awarded a Hunger Games Special Edition PC worth over $1000. Even if you lose the challenge (which Microsoft has made certain of), you will win the opportunity to trade-in your current phone for a free Windows phone (excluding the Nokia Lumia 800). The contest has been hit heavily with accusations of Microsoft rigging the contest via various methods including deliberately throttling Wi-Fi speeds for non-Windows Phones. Despite the many unfounded accusations, one challenger has come forward claiming Microsoft blatantly denied him his prize after legitimately “smoking” a Windows phone with his Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

On “Them, Robot”, last Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns briefly pulled out his iPad and gave us all a quick glimpse of his homescreen. So what kind of apps does an old coot like Burns download? Medical apps like Am I Alive and Google Naps, home automation apps like Trap Door and games like Ukelele Hero and Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang.

My favorite, though? Angry Burns. Fox should actually make that game happen.

[via Gizmodo]

Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Beijing today, meeting Chinese officials as the Cupertino company eyes up further growth in China. It’s his first trip to the country since he took over from Steve Jobs as CEO, and he got himself noticed with a visit Apple’s Beijing store where he stopped to pose for photographs with fans.

Back when OS X Lion first came out, amateur and pro astronomers alike noted with bemusement that Apple had used their new operating system as an excuse to alter the Universe according to their whim. Most notably, when picking a picture of the Andromeda Galaxy as OS X Lion’s default wallpaper, Apple photoshopped several stars and an entire separate galaxy out of the picture.

When Apple debuted the next version of OS X, Mountain Lion, with a brand new galactic image as the default wallpaper, we wondered if Apple had done it again. As it turns out, they have.

LTE is one of the key features available on the new iPad. All that extra speed can be a great feature for consumers and business users alike, although the ability to burn through data that quickly means that all LTE iPad users need to be more conscious of their data use than with the previous 3G iPads (the same will no doubt be true for the next iPhone).

A new study claims that most iPad Internet access (94%) still takes place over Wi-Fi networks, however. That seems like bad news for carriers and it sounds like comforting news for CIOs and IT professionals worried about unknown iPads in their companies. After all, if only 6% of iPad connections occur over 3G/4G, then most iPads in the office are using a corporate network and can be tracked and monitored to ensure data and network security.

Unfortunately digging into the actual data from the study reveals iPad users with 3G and LTE models are actually spending a lot more than 6% of their time using their cellular connection.

Steve Jobs coined it: the “Post PC Revolution.” But is this revolution actually occurring? Are people flocking en masse to tablets, forever leaving behind their keyboards and mice?

And what about those rumors that we’re going to see a 15-inch Macbook Air this summer? Is Apple on the verge of releasing the first pro-edition of everyone’s favorite paper-thin notebook?

We answer these questions and more in episode 5 of The CultCast, now ready for your listening pleasure.

Subscribe now on iTunes!

Shortly after the new iPad made its debut earlier this month, it was discovered that the way in which the device calculates its battery life is flawed. Despite telling you its charge is at 100%, your device hasn’t actually finished charging.

New data proves that in fact, your device isn’t finished charging until more than two hours after it reaches “100%,” and if you unplug it before then, you could lose around 1.2 hours of battery life. What’s more, it seems all iOS devices misreport their battery life.

If you thought interest in the slingshotting hit Angry Birds has faded over the years, you’d be sorely mistaken. In fact, it seems to be even more popular according to the latest numbers announced by Rovio. According to Rovio, their latest Angry Birds Space netted 10 million downloads in less than three day. That’s quite an accomplishment, and to put things into perspective, it took Angry Birds Rio ten days to reach 10 million downloads.

In its first three days of availability, Apple’s new iPad sold an incredible 3 million devices, so it’s no surprise to us that it already accounts for 6.6% of all Apple tablets accessing the internet. That’s according to a new report from mobile ad network Chitika Insights, which monitored internet usage over a 24-hour period.

Those little action cameras look like a great way to capture your extreme sporting exploits, but one thing has always put me off (well, two things — I already have enough cameras): the lack of interchangeable lenses. The wideangle that most GoPro-style cameras use is great for close up sports action, but the CamOne Infinity is about to get add-on glass, making it adaptable to almost any action-shooting task.

Apple is being sued by an 83-year-old lady who broke her nose on a glass door while visiting its retail store in Manhasset, New York. Evelyn Paswall wants $75,000 in medical expenses, in addition to punitive damages for negligence totaling $1 million.

It was revealed last week that Apple is pushing to make its new nano-SIM the next industry standard for miniaturized SIM cards. The company has the backing of most European mobile operators, but rival smartphone vendors — particularly Motorola, RIM, and Nokia — are against the idea.

In a bid to win them over, Apple has promised that it will make nano-SIM licensing free if its proposal is approved.