Cult of Mac

Many school districts around the country are embarking on new territory this back to school season – deploying hundreds or thousands of iPads to students. Most of the deployments will be one-to-one initiatives where every student receives a school-owned iPad to use for this school year or their entire scholastic career. Planning such a roll out isn’t easy, but schools and districts making the shift this year have the advantage of looking what worked and didn’t work from counterparts that pioneered the iPad in the classroom last year.

One school district, Lexington County School District One of South Carolina, has served as a model for many other schools around the country. The district offers a lot of insight into the technical requirements, education policy issues, and roll out processes in such a colossal undertaking.

Several major retailers across the United States are seeing stock shortages of the 27-inch iMac as we approach Apple’s rumored September 12 event, sparking speculation that the popular all-in-one could be in line to receive a refresh alongside the iPhone 5 (and possibly even an iPad mini).

T-Mobile isn’t exactly the carrier of choice these days. After their failed merger with AT&T, they seem to be lost in carrier limbo. Verizon and AT&T have the largest 4G LTE coverage, Sprint has the only true unlimited data plans, and all three of them offer the iPhone. So where does that leave T-Mobile? T-Mobile knows it has to do something, and it appears that something, is unlimited data for $20 a month.

AT&T upset a lot of customers when it revealed that it would only allow those subscribed to its new Mobile Share data plans to access FaceTime over 3G/4G on their iOS devices. Today it has responded to that upset by explaining that because FaceTime is a feature built into the iPhone — and not one that is downloaded by the user — the company can disable it as it wishes and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Nikon’s rumored Android-powered compact camera is here. It’s called the S800c, and along with a smartphone OS, it packs GPS and Wi-Fi, making it a possibly the greatest Instagram shooter out there.

Folding Text is a Mac app from Hog Bay Software’s Jesse Grosjean, and it’s kind of like a cross between a text editor and a terminal. It’s a beta, or maybe even an alpha, but the latest release is good enough to use as a full-time Markdown editor, and it also packs some neat extras.

Back in April, we told you about a nifty way to bring a “Now Playing” message from iTunes to your Dock. Now that Mountain Lion is out, that feature is missing. Luckily, there’s another slick way to get a notification of the track name and info right in Notification Center. Which sort of makes sense, since that’s where notifications go.

Using a third-party app from MediaFire, NowPlaying, you can make this happen on your own Mac running OS X 10.8, more commonly known as Mountain Lion.

When Twitter released its new guidelines last week, it quickly became clear that third-party clients would be hit hardest by the company’s latest rules. However, it seems third-party developers aren’t quite as concerned as the rest of us. Tapbots quickly confirmed that Tweebot development wouldn’t change, and now Iconfactory has confirmed that it will continue development on an “all-new” Twitterrific as planned — unfazed by Twitter’s new rules.

Using banners for your notifications — rather than full-blown alerts we had to suffer prior to iOS 5 — is a great way to ensure incoming alerts stay out of your way while you’re busy sending tweets, chopping fruit, or writing emails. However, it would be nice if those banners could be even slimmer — maybe the same size of the status bar.

Thanks to DietBulletin, they can be.

A rare iPhone 4 “N90” prototype has surfaced on eBay with a strange prototype logo, or “protologo,” on its rear panel. Its seller insists it is the first iPhone 4 prototype to be listed on the online auction site, and they’re currently looking for starting bids of $4,500, or $10,000 for an instant sale.

In an investor note today, Barclays investment analyst Ben Reitzes comes down squarely on the side of many others who believe a set top box is the way Apple has “cracked” the TV scene, rather than with an integrated television set created by Apple hardware designers. His opinion is that Apple is more likely to create a TV product that focuses on the software and not the hardware.

“We believe consumers would welcome such a product from Apple,” wrote Rietzes, “as well given that many younger customers seem to be watching content on demand on smaller screens (iPads, laptops) in private places – and only Apple seems to be the company that can redirect that content back to the big screen.”

Hey, everyone, it’s Back To School time, and students everywhere will need to take part in a time honored tradition – taking notes. IRIS, originally an OCR software company, announced today the availability of two new digital note taking pens that will take handwritten notes and turn them into editable text. The IRISNotes2 Express and Executive pens will fit different needs and budgets, but should prove a boon to anyone – especially students – who need to take fast notes and then get them into a digital format.

Every home needs a coffee table. Preferably, something that looks good without being a cheap piece of junk that you’d find at Ikea. If you’re in the market for a new coffee table, and happen to be a huge Apple fan, you can buy this gem for $600, or just make it yourself.

Each table is made out of 70% of reclaimed materials, so it’s good for the environment and individually hand-crafted so your living room will feel extra special.

Source: Crunching Numbers

Via: Gizmodo

According a study released earlier this month, Apple’s iOS is becoming the most popular platform for enterprise app development – with 53.2% of developers picking iOS for corporate app development compared to 37.4% of developers standing behind Android. RIM’s BlackBerry, the old guard of enterprise mobility, came in a distant fourth behind Windows Phone with only 2% of developers supporting it.

That’s great news for Apple and the iPhone and iPad in business and enterprise environments. Apple even makes enterprise distribution possible outside of the App Store. Mobile App Management (MAM) and enterprise app store solutions provide efficient and effective distribution and update methods for enterprise apps.

Business to business (B2B) apps and solutions, however, present a different kind of challenge – one for which Apple has a solution, even if it isn’t a perfect solution.

September is going to be a big month for Apple fans, with more confirmation today revealing that an official media event is scheduled to take place Wednesday, September 12th. Apple is expected to announce the next iPhone at the event and then make the smartphone available the following Friday, September 21st.

While a new iPhone is on the cards, there seems to be slightly less assurance that we’ll see the rumored 7-inch iPad mini. There has also been some whispers that Apple will also announce an updated version of the current third-gen iPad in September, which seems even more far-fechted.

Details may be up for debate, but Apple is definitely up to something in the iPad space. A new report today reveals that Apple has instructed authorized resellers to triple display space for the iPad on the store floor. The alleged deadline for this new requirement? September 12th.

Jury instructions are out of the way and the final phase of the trial begins with the closing arguments of each counsel.

The Judge has come into the courtroom and notes the jury will be delibearting tomorrow starting at 9AM and says they are not allowed to discuss the case with anyone outside of the jury.

The iPhone 5 is coming. Maybe it won’t be called the iPhone 5, but it’s coming, and it’s almost a sure bet that it will launch on Friday, September 21st.

A new report claims that Verizon has issued an all-staff vacation blackout from September 21st till September 30th so that all Verizon retail staff will be working to cover the launch.

You’re going to college. That means huge lists of all the crap you need to start school of right. Not just books, furniture, clothing, mini-beer refrigerators, and all that junk, but also backpacks and probably some tech gear to get you through the semester.

For most people, the MacBook Air is the best laptop on the market. But if you’re going to college, you might not even need a laptop anymore. We think a lot of college students can get by and just buy an iPad instead of a MacBook Air. Here’s why.

Apparently Marissa Mayer wants everyone at Yahoo to use an iPhone and she may be willing to spend some of Yahoo’s cash to buy everyone in the company an iPhone if that’s what it takes. The move would be unusual on a couple of different fronts and it would buck some of the trends popular in the Internet and technology industries as well as in mainstream business. The biggest question isn’t what this means for Yahoo – it’s  what will consumers and the industry think about her an Yahoo if she does

It sure is great to be able to see the first few lines of emails as they come in on the iPhone, but it’s equally helpful to see more subject headers on the screen at one time. The more emails I can see at once, the more I can ignore, focusing more closely on emails that look promising.

iOS allows you to change the number of emails up on the screen at one time with a simple trip to the Settings app on your iPhone and iPod touch. It’ll even work on your iPad, but that may not be as important as it is on a much smaller screen.

September is back-to-fashion month, when glossy magazines bulge at the seams with their biggest issues of the year.

To celebrate its fashion-packed September issue, W magazine partnered with Hipstamatic for a new lens called “WMag Freepak,” offered free to download in-app until September 2, and launched a contest that will earn the winner a chance to shoot for the magazine.

Photographer Peter Ellenby, a self-taught shutterbug who has lived in San Francisco, shooting bands, events, portraits and fashion since 1994, took the WMag lens on a trial run for pics that will appear in an upcoming edition of Hipstamatic’s iPad magazine Snap.

Here are his tips for photographing fashion, including why you should save money on a studio but always accessorize your shots with a touch of crazy.

With a built-in waterproof headphone jack, BioLogic says their $20 Dry Bag will keep your iPhone safe, clean, and dry in dirty conditions and in water up to three feet deep — all while letting you use your iPhone like you normally would.

I was wary of the claim, so decided to put it to the test.

The thing I like best about the Chromonaut camera bag isn’t the price (it’s a ridiculous $215), or the fantastic retro styling. Nor is it the name, which makes me think of 1970s pulp sci-fi magazines. Nope. The best part of this cool camera carrier is the removable padded inserts, which mean that the bag doubles as, well, a regular bag. An expensive regular bag, sure, but at least it won’t get left at home when you go to the beach.

It’s hard to believe, given how many Apple Stores are constantly opening their doors, but Apple’s only got official retail presence in 13 countries. That’s nothing: a mere 6% of the world. Chances are, then, that unless you live in America or Western Europe, you don’t have easy access to an Apple Store.

Luckily, that’s a problem Apple’s looking to change, one country at a time. Next country on the list set to be transformed by the Apple retail experience? Good old Mother Russia.

11,666mAh. That’s the nightmare figure that faces you every time you plug the newest iPad in to charge. You really need to charge the thing overnight, otherwise you’ll be sitting there for hours and hours waiting for the battery meter to tick over to 100%.

And the myCharge Peak 6000 – like most external battery packs – will only make a small contribution to that yawning, ravenous battery. It will toss 6,000 mAh into the void before excusing itself for its own refill, but if you use it with, say, an iPhone you will be able to charge the thing several times over.

The Peak 6000 wins on design, too. The wall prongs are built in for fast hookup, as are a 30-pin dock connector and a microUSB plug. You won’t be losing any parts of this charger. It even has a pop-out USB input for charging from a computer, should there only be one wall-wart available.

The price for this well-designed back up? $99. Buy two and you’d have enough to fully charge the greedy, bloated iPad 3.

Source: myCharge