In Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial, it wasn’t a stretch to realize that the big brother figure was meant to represent IBM. That makes it very ironic that IBM now has more Macs, iPads, and iPhones deployed than any company except Apple.
The extent to which Apple devices are being used at IBM became clear during a presentation at MacWorld|iWorld last week by Chris Peppin that detailed the initiatives of Big Blue related to Apple. Those initiatives are pretty shocking considering the fact that IBM was once Apple’s number one adversary in the business technology market.
When Apple first released their incredible new iBooks authoring tool (called — wait for it — iBooks Author) there was a fair amount of scandal that the EULA included provisions that gave Apple exclusive publishing rights to the book. It meant authors couldn’t publish their books in iBook and the Kindle Store at the same time, for example.
We were skeptical from the start that this was what Apple meant. In fact, it seemed pretty clear to us that Apple misspoke in the EULA, and only meant to keep people from using iBooks Author formatted e-books on other platforms, not the actual content inside.
But if there’s still any doubt, Apple has gone ahead and clarified EULA, making it even clearer that they don’t claim your content to own, nor do they care if you sell your book on another store: you just can’t sell it in iBooks Author format elsewhere. Seems fair enough to me.
A few months ago, Days of Wonder released the $2 iPhone version of their overwhelmingly popular, award-winning board game, Ticket to Ride. Ticket to Ride Pocket amazed everyone by including all the elements of the iPad version in a smaller, tighter, but just as engrossing package — only with one huge hole: While you could play real people around you via a Bluetooth connection, there wasn’t any way to play against people who weren’t in the same room with you. All that changed yesterday, making TTR pocket one of the best board game on the iPhone, right up there with chess and Words with Friends.
Yesterday we brought you a story all about how Apple is inadvertenly censoring rappers and their profane lyrics, but it looks like Cupertino isn’t happy with just ruining rap music… they also want to make sure your Newsstand magazines don’t talk about penises, even in a clinical, scientific sense.
Our favorite cloud storage service has a nice little treat for anyone brave enough to beta test their latest app. Right now, Dropbox is offering up to an extra 5G of storage for testing out their new automatic upload feature. For every 500MB of photos and videos you automatically upload, Dropbox will reward you with a 500MB space bonus, up to 5GB. Automatic upload seems to be the primary feature added in this beta build, but here’s what they list as new on their site:
Following the introduction of AirPlay mirroring to Apple’s iOS operating system, game developers have been slowly adapting their games to support gameplay on the big screen. The App Store is now home to a number of terrific titles for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, that allow us to hook our devices up to our televisions and enjoy games as if they were being played on a traditional console.
In this App Guide, we’ve rounded up the best the best games with AirPlay support currently available. There’s something for everyone here — whether you’re into first-person shooters, soccer simulators, or adrenaline-pumping racers.
It’s no secret that RIM’s attempt to create an iPad-killer with its PlayBook tablet didn’t deliver a success. In a move that was common of last year’s parade of iPad competitors, the PlayBook shipped almost as a public beta with core functionality like a native email app missing from the device. The PlayBook’s dismal sales haven’t exactly inspired positive reactions from developers, which could signal the death of not just RIM’s tablet but also future smartphones based on the QNX operating system that powers the PlayBook.
In a desperate attempt to build up a developer community, RIM has turned to an unlikely source: Android developers. The company has already developed tools that allow Android apps to be ported with relative ease to the PlayBook, but interest hasn’t exactly been high. Now, the company is hoping to entice more developers by offering a free PlayBook.
You know that so-called “permanent injunction” Motorola got against Apple that resulted in Apple pulling all iPhones and iPads short of the iPhone 4S off their online store earlier today? Already overruled, and Germans can once again get their iPhone and iPad on.
The latest iPad app from Readdle, a company famous for its excellent productivity apps for iOS, has perfected PDF annotation and note taking on a touchscreen device. It’s called Remarks, and it allows you to write and draw on PDF documents, outline notes in class or in the office, and sketch new ideas with your fingertip or a stylus.
Windows Phone 7 hasn’t been the runaway blockbuster that Microsoft probably envisioned when it launched nearly a year and a half ago. Despite advertising campaigns and a strategic alliance with Nokia, Windows Phone use still ranks well below iOS, Android, and BlackBerry use. But new details about the platforms future that were leaked earlier this week show Microsoft may have a solid strategy for gaining marketshare with the next major Windows Phone update, which will likely coincide with the launch of Windows 8 for PCs and/or tablets.
One thing that seems very clear from this new information is Microsoft seems to be taking cues from Apple’s playbook when it comes to creating an ecosystem of devices – like making it easy to shift apps from a phone experience to a larger tablet experience.
The question is, can Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 on tablets challenge Apple’s iPhone and iPad dominance in the business realms?
Earlier this week, we heard a report from iTV obsessive Gene Munster that Apple was looking to buy up HDTV panels to launch their long-rumored connected television set by the end of 2012. But according to a new report from the sometimes-accidentally-reliable Digitimes, when Apple came knocking for display panels, the big boys all said ‘no.’
The Super Bowl is only a couple of days away and EA Sports has once again discounted their Madden NFL 12 to $0.99. If you missed out on the sale last time, you probably have until Sunday or Monday before this one expires so you’re going to want to act fast before it’s $4.99 again. If you didn’t see the features of the game the last time, here they are again:
Remember that impressive Liquipel waterproof coating for smartphones and mobile devices that was being shown off at CES? Well, according to a previously reliable source, it’ll soon be a feature present on Apple’s long-awaited iPhone 5, and Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S III.
Sometimes you wake up, and life’s just out to kick you in the junk as hard as it can. Other days, you wake up and the whole world is smiling on you.
I think this lucky S.O.B. of a Redditor qualifies in the latter category, don’t you? He found a brand new, boxed 32GB iPad 2 WiFi at his local Goodwill charity shop for only $65.
Sixty-five bucks! Amazing. That’s, like, the street value of a crappy BlackBerry Playbook or something, not a top-of-the-line tablet made by Apple. What did they nip in the coffee at the Goodwill that day, I wonder?
cellhelmet is a new case built from thermoplastic polyurethane rubber (TPU) which promises to provide the “ultimate protection” for your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S. In fact, its creators, cellpig, are so confident their case will save your device from accidental damage that with each purchase they throw in free insurance for a whole year. No other case offers this level of protection.
Following the release of Safari 5.1.3 earlier this week — which was bundled with the OS X Lion 10.7.3 update — Apple has seeded Safari 5.1.4 to registered developers. The release includes improvements to both JavaScript performance, and the way in which the browser handles PDF printing.
Apple has been forced to cease online sales of its iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and 3G-equipped iPad 2 in Germany after Motorola triumphed over the Cupertino company in a Mannheim court, securing an injunction against several of its 3G devices. Those affected are no longer available to purchase from Apple’s online store, though they can still be obtained from its retail stores.
Following up on this morning’s rumor about a “strange” and “unusual” Apple event this month, Jim Dalrymple has officially debunked the claim that Apple will hold an event in February of this year.
Japanese blog Macotakara had updated its previous claim that Apple would introduce the iPad 3 this month by saying that the company was instead planning a “strange” event that didn’t involve new hardware. Neither of these reports are true, and we can instead expect an iPad announcement in March.
If today’s release of Id’s mind-blowing, Wasteland-themed Rage: Campaign Edition first-person shooter on the Mac App Store is any indication, the days of your mouth-breathing PC friends making fun of you because “you can’t play games on your Mac” may be numbered.
We’ve seen plenty of jailbreak tweaks for enhancing Siri, but a new one called MyAssistant offers more features than any of its predecessors. Developed by Andrea Oliva and Saltb0x, MyAssistant is available for $0.99 in Cydia. You will need a jailbroken iPhone 4S or Siri-hacked iOS device to run MyAssistant.
With this new tweak you can tell your iPhone to reboot, lock, take a picture, get lyrics for a song, give you its battery percentage, and more. You can also customize the look of the Siri UI and create custom conversations with Apple’s digital assistant.
Apple has always been a company that stresses the details. Everything down to the tiniest pixel is highly scrutinized to perfection. That’s why it doesn’t come as a total surprise that Apple is going after developers for using the wrong type of iPhone mockup to promote third-party apps on the web.
Cupertino doesn’t like the idea of developers using white iPhones to show off their work in marketing materials. It’s a black iPhone or the highway.
Every major tech company offers training and certification programs for their solutions, including Apple. For years, it’s been common advice to pursue certifications if you’re looking to get a job in IT for the first time or to if you want to move up the IT ladder. Certifications can sometimes make up for lack of on the job experience since they provide a way of measuring knowledge. If you expend the effort to pursue certifications for technologies that you use (or have used) on the job, it’s common wisdom that they’ll give you a leg up not just in getting a job but in negotiating your salary and benefits package.
Based on that wisdom it isn’t surprising that tech training programs with a goal of getting you certified are a big business. It doesn’t hurt that some US education loan programs, including those for returning veterans, can be used to finance training classes as an alternative to college. Yet a recent study shows that some IT certifications no longer equal success and higher pay. Does this mean certifications are worthless? Yes and no. The truth is that it often depends on the certification(s) in question. With iOS devices and Macs becoming business staples, the an obvious question is… are Apple’s certifications worth pursuing?
Nothing helps me turn my swag on more than when I’m listening to rap music during my morning jogs. Swimming in a tidal wave of beats fused with magically crass lyrics, I get this uncontrollable tick that slowly mutates into spasms of weird arm movements as I trot along. I think it’s called “crunking”, but I’m not sure. All I know is I need my terribly cheesy rap music to survive my jogs, but today I loaded up songs on my iPhone using iTunes Match and there was a subtle but devastating difference in the tracks I listened to: all the curse words were gone!
iTunes Match had successfully filtered out all the profane and derogatory words by changing the tracks to clean versions of the albums, which pretty much ruined my jog because I was really really wanting to sing along and drop 50 “F-bombs” a minute. Maybe this is just a rare glitch in iTunes Match’s system, but it’s a travesty tantamount to treason in my eyes and I want it fixed.
The sheer volume of available apps is one selling point for iOS. For those using the iPad or iPhone in the workplace, there is an ever-growing selection of business and productivity tools. Some of these, like the apps from Salesforce.com, tie into existing business solutions and are available at no charge. Others may not be free but fill critical business needs like those that provide the ability to view and edit Office documents (examples include Quickoffice, Documents to Go, Office2, and Apple’s iWork apps).
This presents a conundrum to some IT professionals. In business environments most desktop applications (Mac or Windows) are purchased using volume or site licenses and delivered to workers using mass deployment tools. The software, or more accurately the license to run it, is purchased as and remains company property.
iOS apps, on the other hand, are treated by Apple much like music tracks or TV episodes. They’re purchased using an iTunes Store account and can be installed on any iOS devices tied to that account. Essentially, they become the property of the person who has purchased or downloaded them. That flies in the face of traditional IT tactics – a point reported by Network World as a constant source of issue to IT departments and a point of discussion at the MacIT conference that ran alongside MacWorld | iWorld last week.
Did you know that it’s incredibly easy to turn almost any document into a PDF directly on your iOS device, with a simple third-party app? That app is called PDF Converter from Readdle, the developers of a number of popular productivity apps for iOS. If you’re looking for a free PDF converter for iPhone, you can find all the essential tools inthis guide. Here’s how to do it.
