eBooks

If you have been reading this blog for quite some time, you would have known that I hated eBooks. I detested them. Don’t get me wrong, I love to read; softcovers or hardcovers, but ebooks just get me. It feels weird in your hands, it doesn’t look right, it’s uncomfortable, blah blah blah. But yesterday something remarkable happened. We can say the impossible became possible. I read two books, over 500 pages in total… on my iPad. When a software as elegant, efficient, simple, and advanced as Overdrive pops up, it becomes impossible to resist the electronic era. Why  carry a stack of books around when you can still have them all, literally on a thin piece of glass weighing less than 1.5 pounds?

I came home two days ago thinking “I totally forgot my book!!!” I didn’t want to go to the library, so I did the only thing I could. I opened up my iPad, slid my finger across my mirror image and tapped on Overdrive. I connected to our local library’s eBooks catalogue and found my book. Then after I plugged in my library card, I tapped open the cover. The experience wasn’t like what I remembered last year, maybe the app updated, maybe I changed  No matter, I enjoyed it and found myself drawn to tapping the “Get more books” icon and downloading the next few books in the series.

We, as in our Western 21st century generation are more than cyborgs now. We aren’t dependent on electronics and the internet. Our technologies are what we are made of. We don’t seem to see a difference between our beds, tables, or chairs and our computers, credit card, internet, or cell phones. Both lists are things that we need, things that if taken away will literally completely change our world.

I am not trying to say that anything is bad, just that if credit card companies’ servers were attacked, or if we have a shortage of computer chips, we would be in big trouble. Our minds are wired to rely on technology, I hope by 2012 being “the end of the world”, this is not what it means 🙂 . Anyways, onto my 3rd eBook!!!

Mountain Lion: Is It Any Good?

Well, it’s here, the long awaited operating system: OS X Mountain Lion (The word Mac is officially dropped from OS X). Even though it’s here, I don’t think it’s any good. However, Mountain Lion is needed to ever upgrade again, say the next operating system next year. That means if you want to ever get a new operating system, you need to get Mountain Lion. Anyways, here’s what’s new:

As more and more people are enjoying the iPad and iPhone, Apple decided to put their popular IOS features into the Mac. From IOS, there is Game Centre, Notification Centre, Notes, iMessages, Reminders, and enhanced iCloud. Personally, I don’t really use any of these features, so it makes no difference to me. Plus, Growl is a perfect substitution for Notification Centre, and I also have Anxiety as an alternative to Reminders. Even though Apple thinks making the Mac as similar as the iPad and iPhone, with Launchpad and the new Mail app from Lion, and now all these new apps, is good, I don’t really care for it very much.

Other than the IOS features, there is security updates, and other little details. For example, Power Nap can update mail, apps, and so on when the laptop is closed. The littler things include new autosave functions, sharing options, airplay mirroring, accessibility enhancements, etc..

I don’t believe Mountain Lion is worth getting, but again, isn’t it better to get Mountain Lion, use it, then upgrade, instead of getting Mountain Lion then an actually significant upgrade next year or the year after?

Anyways, putting the debate over getting Mountain Lion aside, what I really want to know is what Apple will name their operating system after Mountain Lion. It seems that Apple was running out of options: Pumas, Cougars, and other cats are also Mountain Lions. You could say Mac OS X 10.3 was Mountain Lion, even though OS X 10.8 is actually named Mountain Lion. I really can’t think of any other cat that’s better than Mountain Lion. Maybe OS X 10.9 would not be a cat. I wonder…

EDIT: Apologies, the images that are linked seem to no longer exist, please ignore them for the moment.

“The New iPad”

Personally, I am not really pleased with “The New iPad”, I think it could be better. Sure, there’s the retina display that’s clearer than a HDTV with 3.1 million pixels. The processor is now A5X, which is incredible. The iSight camera is light years ahead, shooting videos at 1080p and taking incredibly detailed photos. Speech-to-text is included, and there is 4G LTE (again, incredibly advanced) models. But something is missing.

This is Apple. Waking up today, I expected something grand. Maybe a SD slot or perhaps a haptic display? Wouldn’t it be really cool if iPads have a haptic display, giving items on screen texture? The upgrades we see today is already a huge leap, but it isn’t as exciting as other updates. The iPad and the iPhone, the two newest products have had significant changes since they arrived. The first iPad was amazing because it was the first of its kind. The iPad 2 was completely changed with a sleeker design, various hardware changes and IOS 5. But “The New iPad” dosen’t have anything completely new. Even the iPhone 4S has Siri, which is pretty awesome, sci-fi, and more importantly, never seen before. These new features on “The New iPad” exists in other places. The iPhone 4S has a retina display, 4G, iSight camera, 1080p HD video recording, and speech-to-text. The A5X processor is just a small upgrade from the A5 chip. These features are only worth adding because they haven’t been on a tablet before.

Why is “The New iPad” in quotations? Well, because it is just called the iPad. Not iPad 3, or iPad HD. This iPad is just called iPad. iPad is a nice name, with a lot of legal battles in China, but it is still a great name. However, the first iPad was also named “iPad”. How do we refer to this iPad a year later when another new iPad comes out? Are we going to call the iPads iPad, iPad 2, The New iPad, The New-New iPad, etc.? I guess the Apple product numbering system is saying goodbye…

Lots of rumours have been proved right, other unconventional features have been proved wrong. Today, we see a new leap in tablet technology. However, Apple, you can do better. As Tim Cook mentioned, Apple have “the most innovative [people] on earth.”

To see the full keynote and details of the release of the new iPad, Apple TV, iPad iLife suite, iPad iWork suite, and apps for “The New iPad”; click here.

Textbooks… Reinvented

Before I go on, I just want to say a quick “Happy New Year”. I was quite busy and wasn’t able to blog in the last while. Anyways, I hope everyone will live a successful and happy 2012 (that is if the world doesn’t end ;-)). I also want to wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year (if you celebrate it). Have fun in 2012, the year of the dragon.

School districts in North America are working furiously to catch up with today’s technology. A couple years ago we used blackboards and chalkboard; then came the whiteboards and the projectors; now some schools use crazily high tech Smart boards. They try to catch up by using technology in class. Students type, and sometimes even blog. Schools are encouraging laptops, iPads and to learn the “21st century way”. But why haven’t we changed one of the most important aspect of education, textbooks. As far as my family and I can remember, the world had always been using paper textbooks. Just think about it for a moment. Now even if Steve Jobs isn’t here, someone sure would’ve thought about decreasing the weight of student’s backpacks by putting textbooks online. However, Steve Jobs is here. He and his team at Apple truly reinvented textbooks with the iPad.

For too long our students have been bored out of their minds with textbooks. But these textbooks are different. Using the iPad’s multitouch technology, students are able to interact with these textbooks. A 3D model can be manipulated, a timeline can be animated, the options are endless. But it gets even better. Flashcards are incorporated in to the text book so it is super easy to take notes. There could be lesson checks and best of all, anyone can make their own textbook for free. Now through the Mac App Store and “iBooks Author” anyone can share their knowledge. Imagine the possibilities.

Regular textbooks can cost hundreds of dollars, but these are available from the iBooks store for a much cheaper price.

As we speak, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw Hill Education, and Pearson Education (3 of the top K-12 textbook providers) are developing iPad textbooks.

We are definitely moving forward. This is great, it will help education become better, much better. Technology make the new generation more prepared for their world after 16 or so years of schooling, because in 16 years our world will change dramatically. Apple, thank you, once again.

The link to iBooks textbooks is here: http://www.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/

iOS 5 Tips and Tricks

I thought that owning multiple Apple iDevices, I might share some cool new features of the newest operating system, iOS 5. If you have anything to add, feel free to to comment.

1. A computer is no longer necessary! Any device can be set up, backed up, synced with other devices, and updated right on the device. Backups and syncs is done using iCloud. But if you do want to sync and backup with a computer, it can be done wirelessly through local Wi-Fi.
2. iCloud can sync everything over everything. This means if you add an event on your Mac at home, it will appear on your iPad, iPhone, etc. If you add a contact at work, it will appear on your Mac and your iPhone, and your iPad, etc.
3. The new notification centre keeps all your notifications in one place. Simply swipe  down and you’ll be able to see your notifications, weather, and a stock ticker. Notifications now simply pop up on the top of your screen causing little disturbance. In the lock screen, swiping the little icon beside the notification will launch whatever the notification is. For example, you can listen to a voice message in the lock screen.
4. With Newsstand, subscribing to electronic magazines have never been easier, in the App Store, visit the “Newsstand” category to purchase new subscriptions. Also, several newspapers including the New York Times are incorporated into Newsstand.
5. If you have an iPhone, you can take a photo with a tap of a button on the lock screen. The capture button now can also be activated with the volume up button (iPad 2 too!). Also, under the “option” tab, you can enable grids.
6. Safari now have a “Reader” button in the URL box, this is for reading articles without the distractions (ads, related posts, sidebars, etc.). Also, with Reading List, you can save a page to read later. Safari has a private browsing feature located in the Safari section of settings too.
7. The iPad 2 now have multitasking gestures. Swipe up with four/five fingers to open the multitasking bar, swipe sideways to switch applications, and pinch to go back to the home screen.
8. AirPlay can now mirror your device through Apple TV so you see what your audience see.
9. Mail now supports rich text (bold, italics, etc.) and have other new features including swiping to hide the list of mail items (iPad).
10. The new built in app Reminders allow you to create lists on any date.
11. iPads and iPod Touches join in with iMessage, they can text using their Apple ID.
12. Twitter is now integrated into iOS 5. You can even tweet using Siri!
13. Hotmail is now an option when you create a new mail account. This means it is possible to sync with your Hotmail account on your iDevice.
14. On the iPad, the keyboard can be split by using two fingers and making a splitting gesture. This make it more convenient to type with two thumbs (if that is you). This can be disabled in settings (if you’re not the thumb typer).
15. You can create text shortcuts in the keyboard setting.
16. You can see how much space your apps are taking in settings>general>usage.
17. On the iPhone, you can create custom vibrations for different contacts. Simply turn them on in the accessibility setting and add vibrations in the sounds setting.
18. The weather app now has an hour by hour forecast.
19. Maps are now compatible with AirPrint. Roll up the edge to find a new print button.
20. iOS 5 can now identify different headphones and save different volume settings for each.

All in all, these are 20 tips and tricks that I can think of. But again, if you have more, add them into the comment section. Thank-you 🙂