I often get asked: “What would you do if you ran Apple?” Well, actually, no one asks me that. But if they did, there are a lot of things that I would do that I think would make the company’s product line stronger. Apple isn’t going to do many of these. But I wish they would.
1. iBooks reader for Mac
I saw a recent study that said that many people still read ebooks on computers. But you can’t do that with books purchased in the iBookstore. You can only read them in iBooks on an iOS device.
For this reason I prefer to buy books from Amazon for the Kindle, even though I don’t use a Kindle. Kindle books can be read on the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and the Mac. Why would I buy a book from Apple when the same book from Amazon can be read in more places?
Apple news sites haven’t had much to report on over the holidays, but there are plenty of rumors of what is to come next year. We’ll undoubtedly get new iPad and iPhone models at some point, most likely a year after the previous models. But some sites predict a new iPad mini model as early as the spring. And others even predict a fifth generation iPad in the coming months, despite the fact that the fourth generation iPad is still pretty new and followed closely after the third generation model.
Other, more bizarre rumors indicate we’ll have new Apple accessories next year, including a watch that displays data from your iPhone and a motion-controlled mouse for your Mac. The latter idea comes from recent patent filings. Apple is always researching new ideas and filing patents, but few of those become actual products.
A school in Los Angeles, California is looking to buy an iPad to help teach kids to read.
“It is very important that our project get funded in order for me to be able to provide my pre-K and Transitional Kinder reading level students with kinesthetic, auditory, and visual opportunities needed to become literate. With your generous support my students will not only learn essential pre-K and Transitional Kinder reading skills, but will also learn how to use technology.”
Join MacMost in supporting this project.
“The other physicists kicked Edward out of the holiday party after he told one too many jokes about his Mac’s Fusion Drive and Time Machine.”
If you ever find you are having trouble accessing iCloud, the iTunes store, Siri, FaceTime or any other online service provided by Apple, you can check the page at http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/ to see if the service is down. This can help you figure out if the problem is on your end or theirs.
Check out my latest game: Championship Solitaire. The idea here is that it is solitaire, but with scoring. You get points for every card moved to a foundation, but it costs points to start a new game. And you can compare your scores to others using Apple’s Game Center. You can also challenge your friends.
In addition to the scoring, I’ve tried to make this a smooth and easy-to-use solitaire game. It works with native screen resolution no matter which iOS device you have: iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPad, etc. And you can orient the screen any way you like. The game is free to play, so give it a try.
Some people might be getting a new Mac this holiday season, so we’re offering 20% off our Video Guide To Mountain Lion. We put together 20+ videos with more than 2 hours of instruction, and made it super-easy to get by putting it in the Mac App Store.
This is a great way for beginners to get to know Mac OS X Mountain Lion, and for casual users to dig deeper into the features. The videos are unique, not something that can be found anywhere else. The app lets you jump easily from video to video and you can resize the window for better viewing, even going full screen.
Even if you are proficient in using OS X, you may want to consider recommending this to friends as a good way to jump in and learn more.
The online Apple Store is offering free next day shipping in order to encourage gift buying. According to this special holiday shipping chart you can order some iPods, iPhones, iPads and Macs as late as Friday and still get them by December 25.
iTunes 11 got its first update last week with various improvements such as the return of the ability to see duplicate items. Apple also released version 6.0.2 of iOS for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini that fixes some wifi issues.
Time magazine featured Apple CEO Tim Cook as one of the runners-up for Person of the Year. Steve Jobs was featured many times in that special issue of the magazine, but never won the top spot.
There are rumors that Apple may be moving forward with a second generation of the iPad mini sooner than expected. While Apple usually releases generations about a year later, some analysts expect to see a new one as early as the spring.
A school in Granada Hills, California is looking to buy three iPads and an Apple TV.
“With the iPads and appleTV we can share different educational apps and websites with the whole class all at once, or have children work with apps on the iPads in small groups. The iPads can be used for listening centers to help them become more fluent readers. This technology will help tremendously as the educational games help make learning fun.”
Join MacMost in supporting this project.
Whether you like the new Maps app, or miss the old Google one, it is worth it to get this free app as an alternative. The Google Maps app is for the iPhone screen, but works fine on the iPad right now in 2X mode and will hopefully be native soon. You can access Street View and also compare and contrast the maps, satellite images and voice directions to the built-in Apple app.
“The load has certainly gotten lighter now that kids are wishing for iPad minis instead of bicycles.”
You can edit the information about a track in iTunes by selecting it and using File, Get Info. But you can also view your library in Song list mode and then edit many of the fields right there. Just click once on a field, wait, and then click again. Or use the Enter key to edit a field you just clicked on. You can even use Tab to move between fields.
A teacher in Bakersfield, California is hoping to raise money to buy two iPad minis for her classroom. She writes:
“Living in the state of California, our school budget has been drastically cut. Our limited resources will not allow us as a school to purchase items such as iPads. How can we expect our students to compete with the rest of the nation or the world if the resources are not there. Most of these students have never seen an iPad. Not only will the technology encourage these students to learn, but will assist in them making a difference in the future.”
Join MacMost in supporting this project.
