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Harry McCracken On How the iPad 2 Became His Favorite Computer
Getting Started With Your New iPad The Right Way [Setup Guide]
Set Up and Get to Know Your New iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Perry Wins IPad and IPhone Vote
Buyer's Remorse: What to Do with Tech Gifts You Don't Want
PC Mag Posts Rundown of Holiday Gift Return Policies
Acer Not Giving Up On Tablet PCs - Company Founder
A History Of Touch-Screen Technology
Foxconn To Double Size Of iPhone Plant, Making It Biggest In World
Because WeSaySo Department: FAA Justification For Banning Kindles and iPads Proven Faulty
Pilcrow, Dagger, and Copyright - A Writer's Symbols and Characters
Fax Viewer 1.8.7 for iOS - Easily View TIFF/TIF Fax
Harry McCracken On How the iPad 2 Became His Favorite Computer
"Can the iPad replace a PC?" asks TIME TechLand's Harry McCracken, noting that since Apple announced its tablet nearly two years ago, discussion of this question has been rife on the Internet. McCracken takes the rational view that whether you can successfully replace your laptop with an iPad will depend on what your needs are. Ergo: casual computer users could arguably replace a laptop with an iPad from the outset, but for creators of professional-level content the answer is more complex. However, based on his personal use and experience, he's positive that it is possible to use an iPad as one s primary device for professional-level content creation, since he's been doing it for the past three months, and says he's been having a really good time.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://ti.me/uCafXB
Getting Started With Your New iPad The Right Way [Setup Guide]
Did you get a new iPad 2 foe Christmas? Cult of Mac's Eli Milchman offers some key setup tricks that new (and even some not-so-new) iPad users miss, intended to make sure you get the best out of your iPad 2.
You can check it out at:
http://bit.ly/uioIA0
Set Up and Get to Know Your New iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Lifehacker's Adam Dachis says that before you dive in to using your new iPad, there are a few things you should attend to first:
• Update to the Lastest Version of iOS
• Get to Know iOS 5 - Once you've updated, you ought to know what you're in for. He can teach you everything you need to know about iOS 5 in 7 minutes, but if you want to go more in-depth, you can learn how to configure notification center, create contact-specific vibrations and LED notifications, hide the newsstand "app" in a folder, set up typing shortcuts, add some beautiful settings shortcuts to your home screen, and make your iPhone read any text aloud on demand.
• Sign up for free Find My iPhone - download it from the iTunes App Store and follow the signup instructions.
• Organize your home screen - When you start downloading a bunch of apps, your home screen is going to get cluttered very quickly. Stay ahead of the game and start organizing.
• Download Some Killer Apps
• Set up custom typing shortcuts
• Learn how to take great holiday photos with your iPhone
• Fill out your Address Book to make Siri work better
• Use your iPad or Android tablet as a second monitor for your computer
• Learn how to copy music from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer for free
• Learn how to sync documents and other files to your iPhone or iPad without iTunes
• Learn how to improve your iPhone's battery life
• Learn how to migrate all your data to iCloud from Google with minimal fuss
• The best "evil" apps for iPhone
• Learn how to turn your iPod touch into an iPhone: 4G Edition
• Learn how to Google-ify your iPhone
• Learn how to encode video for all your mobile devices
• Learn how Printopia enables iOS-to-Mac AirPrint support hack-free, adds virtual printers
• Learn how to open compressed files on your iOS device
• Learn how to make music in GarageBand with iOS
• Do Even More: Jailbreak
You can check it out at:
http://lifehac.kr/fg896n
Check out Lifehacker's Best Writing App Picks Ofr iOS:
http://lifehacker.com/5686722/the-best-writing-apps-for-ios
Check out Lifehacker's Pack for iPhone: List of the Best iPhone Apps:
http://lifehac.kr/mWqTPi
Perry Wins IPad and IPhone Vote
Free Republic contributor Cincinatus' Wife says:
I wish to congratulate Governor Perry for winning the IPad and IPhone Vote. No, this is not a Presidential poll of tech minded persons (i.e. geeks). No, it something much more important and real. Let me just say it this way:
If you purchased an IPad or IPhone for Christmas, Governor Perry and the great state of Texas would just like to say Thanks
While the rest of the country has been suffering from Obama-itis (too much government regulations and power hungry unionism), Texas has been trying to make itself attractive to business (by limiting regulations, empowering free work rules, limiting frivolous lawsuits, educating ALL its people, limiting taxes) Which brings me back to the IPad and IPhone. As many of you know (well, at least the tech-knowledgeable among us), the brains of the iPad and IPhone is the A5 chip. These chips are now made in Texas in a new $3.6 Billion facility. How big is this new facility? Well, to put it in terms any Texan would understand: Nine football fields. This is a major facility....
The new facility employs more than 1,100 workers. So the next time you see someone with an IPad or IPhone say Howdy! for the good people of Texas and for Governor Perry. Amazing! Apple Actually Buys Something Made in America!
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/sS7QMp
Buyer's Remorse: What to Do with Tech Gifts You Don't Want
TIME Techland's Keith Wagstaff says that just because you didn't get the perfect gift during the holidays, it doesn't mean you can't get what you want, but cautions that the time window for returning tech gifts is usually pretty short when compared with other products.
For the full report visit here:
http://ti.me/t8yHQy
PC Mag Posts Rundown of Holiday Gift Return Policies
PCMag's Meredith Popolo notes that every retail and online store from Amazon, GameStop, Walmart and more - has very specific gift return policies, and tells what you need to know to swap out a holiday present you didn't love, noting that policies vary greatly from store to store, so before you swap, so check out PCMag's rundown of return policies at popular retailers.
You can check it out at:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398042,00.asp
Acer Not Giving Up On Tablet PCs - Company Founder
Digitimes' Aaron Lee and Adam Hwang report that responding to a rumor that Acer will withdraw from the tablet PC and smartphone markets, the company's founder, Stan Shih, has reaffirmed that although Acer's tablet operation has not performed well, it's not time to give up the business, observing that experiencing frustration is an unavoidable part of the process, just like Acer's encountering troubles when it entered the notebook market was.
Mr. Shih is firther cited noting that Acer's board of directors has discussed the company's product development and streamlining its corporate organization, and has consented to strategies of simplifying operational goals through focusing on profitable products, and considering the degree od overlap in development of tablet PCs and smartphones, a simplified organization is expected to increase operation efficiency, reduce conflicts in product development and consolidate resources for developing niche and competitive products, and Acer confirming that the company has no plans to quit the tablet PC and smartphone business operations or downsize related personnel, but will make "optimal adjustments."
For the full report visit here:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111225PD200.html
A History Of Touch-Screen Technology
Bill Buxton of Microsoft Research says that since the announcements of the iPhone and Microsoft's Surface (both in 2007), an especially large number of people have asked him about multi-touch - largely because they know that he's been involved in the topic for a number of years. The problem is, he hasn'r the time to give a detailed reply to each question, so he's done the next best thing, he hopes: compiling his would-be answers in an omnibus document, the assumption being that ultimately it's less work to give one reasonable answer than many unsatisfactory ones.
Buxton notes that multi-touch technologies have a long history, and to put it in some perspective, his group at the University of Toronto was working on multi-touch in 1984 (Lee, Buxton & Smith, 1985), the same year that the first Macintosh computer was released, and they were not the first. Moreover, during development of the iPhone, Apple was very much aware of the history of multi-touch, dating at least back to 1982, and the use of the pinch gesture, dating back to 1983. He allows that this is clearly demonstrated by the bibliography of the PhD thesis of Wayne Westerman, co-founder of FingerWorks, a company that Apple acquired early in 2005, and now an Apple employee:
http://www.ee.udel.edu/~westerma/main.pdf
You can read Bill Buxton's full multi-touch document here:
http://billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html
For more background on input, see also Buxton's incomplete draft manuscript for my book on input tools, theories and techniques:
http://www.billbuxton.com/inputManuscript.html
For more background on input devices, including touch screens and tablets, see his directory at:
http://www.billbuxton.com/InputSources.html
Foxconn To Double Size Of iPhone Plant, Making It Biggest In World
Appleinsider's Mikey Campbell reports:
Chinese manufacturer and Apple partner Foxconn plans to expand the size of its iPhone-producing Zhengzhou plant, with the $1.1 billion construction expected to make it the largest smartphone-producing facility in the world.
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/rOCYl9
Because WeSaySo Department: FAA Justification For Banning Kindles and iPads Proven Faulty
The New York Times' Nick Bilton sasays: the Federal Aviation Administration's rationale for prohibiting passengers from using their Kindles and iPads during takeoff and landing just doesn't add up, noting that EMT Labs, an independent testing facility in Mountain View, Calif., put an Amazon Kindle through a number of tests, and found it consistently emitted fewer than 30 microvolts per meter when in use only 0.00003 of a volt, much too low to do anything tthat would interfere with an aircraft, and noting that it's a conundrum why pilots in the cockpit are permitted or even encouraged to use iPads, but people back in coach can't, and it's inconsistent that portable voice recorders, hearing aids, heart pacemakers and electric shavers, all of which emit electronic "noise" are permitted during all times of a flight.
For the full report visit here:
http://nyti.ms/tDhaZO
Pilcrow, Dagger, and Copyright - A Writer's Symbols and Characters
Cymbol, an iPad app providing fast, easy access to symbols, special characters, and scripts used in scholarly, business, and legal content, is now available from PhoneApp.com. Choose from 44 special characters that are not available on the iPad's onscreen keyboard. The Cymbol app saves text sequences, provides Unicode conversion and much more.
With a primary slant toward snippet editing and management, Cymbol is useful for package design or label copy, also. Use Cymbol to compose a brief amount of text and one or more special symbols to identify a company, provide special care instructions or a branding message.
To use Cymbol on your iPad, insert the special character that you need in your snippet text. Cymbol provides common symbols such as the pilcrow () and section symbol (), copyright ((C)), trademark ((TM)), text glyphs such as the number abbreviation and other typography used in online and print content. The application includes full sets of subscript and superscript numbers used in math, chemistry, and physics documentation.
Cymbol provides unique functionality for the iPad. A snippet editing and management tool, the app has been designed by writers for writers, providing fast, easy access to special characters not currently available on the iPad's onscreen keyboard. On the app's ready scratch pad, put and save a variety of enhanced character sequences to paste into your next class assignment, product review, legal document, marketing plan, or package design.
Unicode conversion capabilities is perhaps the most useful function offered by Cymbol. In Cymbol, you are able to quickly convert arbitrary hexadecimal code sets of four digits into any supported font output of the base character sets within iOS5. Thus, you can add any iOS5-available character in your text snippets.
Cymbol is a convenient, quick app offering these features:
(*) Integrated full-function editor
(*) One-tap editing without searching code tables
(*) Copyright ((C)), Registered Trademark ((R)) and Standard Trademark ((TM))
(*) Service Mark and Phonogram / Audio Performance Trademark
(*) Text Marks: Pilcrow / paragraph () and Section ()
(*) Dagger () and Double Dagger () A full set of subscripts and superscripts Forty-four (44) direct access buttons in addition to the iPad keyboard
(*) Easy Unicode conversion
(*) Full keyboard
(*) One button "Copy All", "Clear All", "Save All"
(*) Compatible with Notes, Pages, IA Writer, Mail and other apps
(*) Great for package and label copy, too!
(*) Available for a limited time at the introductory price of only $1.99 (USD)
Upcoming releases will include new backgrounds, an expanding symbol set, and improved communications capabilities such as Twitter integration. Extended input capability, bi-directional conversions of characters and hex unicode representation are also slated for future Cymbol releases.
Cymbol is now available from PhoneApp.com at the introductory price of $1.99 (USD)..
Device Requirements:
(*) Compatible with iPad
(*) Requires iOS 4.2 or later
(*) 0.1 MB
Cymbol 1.1.1 :
http://www.phoneapp.com/?q=content/cymbol
Purchase and Download:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/cymbol/id416714959
Fax Viewer 1.8.7 for iOS - Easily View TIFF/TIF Fax Files
Corporate Smalltalk Consulting, Ltd. has announced Fax Viewer 1.8.7 for iOS, a feature update to their document viewer app that allows the user to either view the TIF files generated by standard office fax machines, or convert them to PDF documents for other apps to use.
As faxes are increasingly emailed to save on paper costs, Fax Viewer works by supplementing the existing document display logic found in iOS 4.x and 5.0, which will only display the first page of a fax but not allow access to subsequent pages. The app includes newly enhanced page manipulation features to allow the sizing and rotation of pages as fax pages sometimes arrive in various orientations, tap areas for paging, and adjustments to swipe to scroll. Bookmarking support is provided on a page basis to allow navigation within the document, but also external bookmarking allows for opening an existing fax to a page by tapping a custom URL received in the Mail.app or copy/pasted into Notes.app.
Fax Viewer enables viewing of multi-page faxes by first importing the entire file into its storage area. Once imported, the file undergoes one-time pre-rendering that ensures the fax is optionally re-scaled to be optically correct and to provide the fastest possible rendering when viewing as a multi-page document. The user can copy documents into Fax Viewer by using iTunes to copy files into, delete, or copy them out of the app, or a manual process to move files from Mail.app into Fax Viewer.
Now supporting variable size pages, scaling by width or height, and continuous pixel level scrolling to allow you to treat a fax like a roll of paper.
Feature Highlights:
(*) Conversion of Fax/Tiff files to PDF
(*) Printing to IOS supported printers
(*) Accelerated multi-page TIFF/TIF fax file reading
(*) Uses proprietary LargeViewer technology to import, store, and pre-render documents
(*) Pre-rendering allows smooth scrolling and display
(*) Optional rescaling for fixing Fax aspect ratios
(*) Enhanced cached Dropbox file download compatibility
(*) Responsive scrolling and zooming through dozens of Fax pages
(*) Rotation of pages by document, page, or even/odd pages
(*) Internal and external bookmarking
(*) In-app purchase extensions for supporting Dropbox, accelerated PDF viewing, enabling support for multiple image formats, and support for very large page sizes
"Fax machines are a legacy technology, straddling the 20th and 21st centuries," says company President John McIntosh. "Until they become extinct, Fax Viewer offers an easy, integrated solution for easily viewing multi-page on any iOS device."
Device Requirements:
(*) iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
(*) iOS 4.0 or later
(*) 10.3 MB
Fax Viewer 1.8.7 is $4.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Utilities category. Review copies are available upon request.
Corporate Smalltalk Consulting:
http://www.mobilewikiserver.com
Fax Viewer 1.8.7:
http://www.mobilewikiserver.com/FaxViewer.html
Purchase and Download:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id418331607
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