Category: I-phone

We’ve been following the folks at D7 Consulting as they roll out a set of iPads awarded them by Box.net (and keep an eye out later this week for an update on that), but that’s not the only group of people attempting to use iPads in a collective space. Frasier Speirs (Mac developer at Connected Flow) is implementing iPads at a school he works at, and he’s documenting the whole process on his blog as The iPad Project.

It’s an interesting read — even if you’re not trying to follow in his footsteps and implement a large number of iPads across a system, it’s intriguing to see how he and his co-workers are trying to squeeze a very consumer-targeted product into a more professional space, from setting up profiles and activations on each device to more practical concerns like labeling them with names and finding a way to charge them all together.

Part of the iPad’s charm has been how many different places and ways people have found to use it — at its heart, it’s a reasonably powerful touchscreen computer, and that’s a device that’s got a lot of potential in a lot of fields. We’ll look forward to seeing other implementations in various fields and locations.

[via Cult of Mac]

TUAWThe iPad Project documents deploying iPads at school originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPad plays such a big part of some peoples’ lives that you could almost say they’re married to their iPads. And for others, they just get married by their iPads — well, sort of.

The iPad helped facilitate the wedding of Aaron and Katie, as it made its rounds to the priest and then the bride and groom. Not only did bride Katie read her vows to husband Aaron from the iPad, she composed them on it as well.

While the couple’s wedding was held outdoors, a gazebo provided shade to help make reading easier; the iPad’s glass screen and the sunlight usually don’t make a good combination for readability.

Offbeat Bride reports on creative wedding ideas; Aaron and Katie’s iPad-enabled nuptials certainly qualify.

If you plan on using your iPad in your wedding, you might as well plan your wedding using an iPad. These include 100 Wedding Tips and the Wedding Guests app, which aims to help you make a final decision on who to invite to your wedding and who not to.

TUAWAn iPad, a couple, and a wedding originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everyone’s favorite sticky note has appeared on the Apple Store, which is down as of 12 A.M. Eastern. We’re not aware of any upcoming products, and the store being down on any day other than Tuesday usually points to maintenance rather than new stuff. That said, we’ll keep an eye on it and update if we see anything new when the store comes back up.

As usual, thanks to everyone who tipped us off.

TUAWThe Apple Store is down… on a Thursday? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Autism is a developmental brain disorder that, in some manner, plagues one out of every 110 children (according to the Centers for Disease Control). It’s usually discovered by the time the child is three years old. Varying medical and scientific authorities characterize the condition in different ways, but scientists generally agree that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) manifest themselves in social, communication, and behavioral challenges. The SF Weekly recently wrote about a number of families with autistic children and how the iPad is proving to be quite useful in helping them.

A number of studies have been done on the use of iPhones and iPods as aids for the autistic. One such study was titled iPod Therefore I Can: Enhancing the Learning of Children with Intellectual Disabilities Through Emerging Technologies, and it tracked the progress of 10 autistic children who were using iPod touches in Australia.

The results were quite encouraging. In one case, a child who could not wash his hands was exposed to photos (combined with voice-overs) of a child doing it successfully. Through this method, the correct behavior was reinforced, and in short order, the child was able to wash his hands by himself. About 60 percent of the goals of the study were achieved.

The results of this and other studies have been encouraging, but a major problem for 60 to 80 percent of autistic children is poor motor skills, including poor motor planning, which makes using the small buttons on an iPhone or iPod touch quite difficult. Because of the larger size of an iPad, it can be much more accessible to a larger number of autistic children.

TUAWHelping autistic children with iOS devices originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last April — as is their recent tradition — ThinkGeek put on its show of April Fool’s Day items. Most of these fake items are of the “OMG I need to have that!” variety, like the Tauntaun sleeping bag from a past year. This past April’s list included the “iCade” iPad gaming cabinet, which would have allowed you to slide your iPad into a wood-vaneer, classic-looking mini arcade cabinet.

Just because it was a fake item doesn’t mean someone else could take a stab at it, and that’s just what happened. You can now bid on the pictured item — dubbed the “Freekade” — to have your very own iCade-like iPad mount. The controls work via Bluetooth and require a jailbroken iPad and emulated games provided via the Cydia store. Check out the video demo after the break (just turn your volume down — the clackety-clack of the arcade buttons is annoying as hell).

If you’re not one to go bidding on something like this, it’ll reportedly be available on an online store in the future. I half wish someone would just make a cheaper, non-functional version of this thing just to serve as an iPad dock.

TUAWiCade-like “Freekade” iPad arcade cabinet up for auction originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPhone Spy Stick can be used to snoop information that is stored on a user’s iPhone (even deleted data), within limitations. The ill-intentioned will want to keep reading.

The way that it works sounds simple (we haven’t played with one yet). Just connect the stick and the target iPhone to a computer and run the included software, which pulls all sorts of data from the phone. You’ll find deleted texts, calendar events, photos, and contact information. It’ll also find recent map searches, locations tracked via GPS, Web history, and voice memos.

Are you scared yet? Don’t be. In order to work, the iPhone Spy Stick requires a Windows machine (Windows XP, Vista, or 7 only) and an iPhone that is running iOS 3.2.1 (and earlier). In other words, you can’t run it on any iPhone from any machine. That’s still some hard core snooping, though.

I love that the manufacturer boasts that the device “Looks like an ordinary USB flash drive – no one will suspect that it’s a professional grade forensics tool.” I suppose that’s in spite of the fact that is says, “iPhone Spy Stick” in huge, black and white letters. You can get yours for US$199.

[Via Übergizmo]

TUAWSnoop iPhone data with limitations originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome back for another hour of TUAW TV Live, our weekly live show where you can join in on the fun.

Today, of course, the show is going to be twice the fun when Tim Robertson of OWC Radio and MyMac.com joins host Steve Sande for a lively discussion of the Apple world. Whether we’re talking about the new iPad ad, upgrading old Mac hardware, the iPhone 4, favorites from the App Store, or if we’re following up on something you said in the chat, it’s going to be a raucous discussion. And of course, since Tim’s on the show, we’ll be sure to do a quick round of “This or That” before we’re done.

To join in from your Mac or PC, just go to the next page by clicking the link at the bottom of this post, and you’ll find a live stream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to join in on the fun by asking questions or making comments.

If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application.

We haven’t forgotten about iPad users, as you can tune in to TUAW TV Live on your iPad! That link will send you to a non-Flash page, although you won’t have access to our chat tool.

Remember, old episodes of TUAW TV Live are always available for your viewing pleasure on Ustream.

TUAWTUAW TV Live – Today it’s twice the fun originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography isn’t for everyone, but it can really help when taking pictures with extreme shadow or light. HDR images basically combine two or more pictures taken at different exposures. Using a process called tone mapping, you get a new image that displays more detail in the darker areas and restrains the areas that are too bright.

TrueHDR for the iPhone has been updated to support the full resolution of the iPhone cameras, both front and back. It now supports the Retina Display, and claims better image alignment and more natural looking results.

I’ve reviewed the original version and today I gave the new version a try. The updated app works as advertised, although I was a little short of dramatic scenery for my tests. The added resolution and quality of the iPhone 4 camera makes a welcome difference.

TUAWTrueHDR for iPhone updated for Retina Display and iPhone 4 camera originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Yahoo! Mail isn’t as wildly popular as, say, Gmail, there are still a lot of people who have Yahoo! Mail accounts. After all, you need a Yahoo! account to use Flickr, so many people sign up for the free accounts without a second thought. For the most part, the Web-based mail client has been a real yawner — until now.

Yahoo! has rolled out an HTML5-optimized version of Yahoo! Mail for iPad, following a successful rollout of a similar Web app for iPhone. To get to the newly-refreshed mobile sites, you just point Safari on the iPad (or iPhone for that matter) to http://mail.yahoo.com.

The iPad app is very usable, particularly in landscape mode where the side-by-side panes have room to “stretch out” for readability. When you’re offline, Yahoo! Mail uses HTML5’s local caching capabilities to let you read and search messages that you’ve previously received. Organization of messages is made easy by using a full search function and personal folders, and there are preset Smart Folders that collect messages from those in your Contact list, save attachments from incoming mail, and store photos that have been mailed to you. When photos are attached to an email, you can view them as previews in the inbox view or in their full size by tapping a Full View button.

If you’re a current Yahoo! Mail user or are just looking for a new free email account, you might want to give the new HTML5 mail sites for iPad and iPhone a try. They’re surprisingly clean, trouble-free, useful, and most importantly, free.

TUAWYahoo! Mail for iPad and iPhone contains tasty HTML5 goodness originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting this week that the iAds launch is off to a bumpy start as advertisers learn to deal with Apple’s tight-fisted control.

As Gruber said, “Better get used to it.”

The WSJ notes that, of the 17 partners revealed at the program’s start (iAds was announced in April and officially rolled out in July), only two — Unilever PLC and Nissan Co. — had ads run last month. Since then, only J.C. Penny, Disney and Citigroup have launched ads. Personally, I’ve only seen the Nissan Leaf ad.

The process, some customers complain, is taking longer both in the early stages and final execution. Brainstorm sessions have taken up to 10 weeks, according to sources, and Apple has tacked on another two weeks while assembling the final ad.

Not all participants are complaining, however. A Nissan spokesperson told the WSJ about the great results they’ve seen from their campaign. “[iAds] has driven exceptional results to date,” the company said, noting that iOS users are tapping through the ad at a rate 5 times greater than clickthroughs generated by an online campaign.

Apple’s tight grip on the creative tools is legendary and not about to loosen. Advertisers used to quick turn-around ought to, as John so succinctly said, get used to it.

TUAWWSJ: iAds not starting off so well originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Long-time viewers of TUAW TV Live will remember that we had OWC Radio and MyMac.com Podcast host Tim Robertson on the show a while back, and it was a blast. That’s Tim in the photo at right, doing his best to imitate a fish out of water. Tim and I tend to riff off of each other pretty well, so it was a fun and fast hour of TUAW TV Live.

Well, we were talking (which we both love to do) a few weeks ago, and I decided that it’s time to liven things up with another dose of Tim. He’ll be joining me this afternoon for another hour of fun talk about Macs, iPads, iPhones, and just about anything else that comes out of Cupertino with an Apple logo on it.

The action and general silliness will begin at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT) today, here at TUAW.com. Just drop by at about the time the show is scheduled to start, and we’ll have full instructions on how to watch the show and join in on the live chat.

TUAWTUAW TV Live this afternoon — The Steve and Tim tag team show originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Evolution Defense is a pretty good tower defense title. While it doesn’t add a whole lot to the genre (there is some innovation in terms of how towers are upgraded, and support towers can be built and added in around damaged towers), it is a smooth and direct TD game that’s made for the iPhone.

Your job is to attack pathogens that are invading a bloodstream, and as with the usual tower defense spiel, you need to build up towers along the pathway (according to the currency that you have). It’s pretty basic stuff, but a solid amount of tower choices and some excellent (if a little strange) graphical representations make for a quality game.

Best of all, it’s completely free. It seems like it’s been a while since we featured a freebie, so head on over to the App Store, and pick it up right away. Facebook integration will add a little extra oomph to the gameplay, and there’s supposed to be a pretty good multiplayer mode (that, unfortunately, didn’t work on my 1G iPhone) where you put your own creations up against a friend’s tower setup. All in all, it’s an excellent bit of fun for the low, low price of free.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: Evolution Defense originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Those wily engineers at Yelp have combined a scary amount of the things I love into one device. They’ve taken a keg and tap, an Arduino, an RFID reader, and an iPad and turned them into an amazing kegerator. The device not only tracks who’s been drinking but also tracks information about the beer as it’s poured, including the temperature and ratings of recently poured drinks (so you’ll know when the keg is on a roll). They even put together a bookmarklet to monitor and track the keg remotely.

And as if all of that wasn’t enough, this was all designed during the Yelp Hackathon, which takes place over a 24-hour period. During that 24 hours, the company allows the engineering team to put together whatever they want. So yes, all of this was designed and assembled on official company time. OK, now you guys are just bragging. That’s just unfair!

[via Dvice]

TUAWiPad-equipped kegerator knows how much you’ve had to drink originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you need to catch up with Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm? Do you want to re-watch that interview from Real Sports? Soon, you’ll be able to do just that on your iPad.

HBO Co-President Eric Kessler said that the premium cable channel is planning on releasing an iPad app (dubbed HBO Go) that will enable viewers to view a library of up to 800 hours per month of the channel’s movies and TV shows. Best of all, if you’re already a paying HBO subscriber, you can access content on the iPad app for free.

The content streaming app ecosystem on the iPad includes ABC Player, Netflix and Hulu Plus, and HBO Go is set to join this space. HBO plans to release HBO Go for the iPad in six months, which means that the app will likely be on the App Store sometime during the early part of 2011.

[via Mashable]

TUAWHBO iPad app scheduled to arrive in six months originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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