The new iPad and iPad mini went on sale last Friday and easily outsold the 3rd generation iPad on its opening weekend. Apple reported 3 million combined sales, despite only wi-fi versions of the two iPads being available. Apple Stores were sold out of the Most, if not all, Apple Stores sold out of the iPad mini. Only higher-end 64GB models remained in some stores.
Apple is unlikely to make any new product announcements from now until the end of the year. It has updated almost its entire product line in the last few months and is most likely set for the holiday shopping season. New iMacs were announced last month, but are not expected to ship until later this month and in December for the 27-inch models. Current shipping times for the iPhone 5 remain at 3-4 weeks. But MacBook Pros with retina displays are shown as being In Stock.
Remember those really cool mechanical and electronic building kits of the 70s and 80s? Creatorverse feels like one of those, but it is on your iPad. You can easily create fun physics simulations by dragging objects on to the screen. This is from the makers of Second Life, so it has lots of sharing options too.
You can see recent documents by app though the Dock without the app even running. For instance, click and hold an app icon, like for Pages or Keynote, and a menu will appear. The top items in the menu will will be the most recently opened documents.
The iPad mini and the new 4th Generation iPad are due to hit Apple Stores tomorrow, while shipments are on their way to homes. Apple sold out of iPad mini models about three days after online preorders went live.
Two Apple senior vice presidents will we leaving the company shortly. Scott Forstall, in charge of iOS came to Apple with Steve Jobs in 1997 and was even occasionally mentioned in the press as a possible CEO candidate. The are rumors that his refusal to sign an apology for the shortcomings of the new Maps app may have played a part in this change. He will remain a special advisor to Apple until next year. John Browett took over retail at Apple just last year and not much has been reported about his departure.
Last week Apple reported record profits for the 4th quarter with nearly 27 million iPhones sold, 14 million iPads and 5 million Macs. It was also reported that sales of the Apple TV topped 5 million units in the last year.
I don’t get it. I’ve got “cloud” right in my name: “Clouded Leopard.” Why didn’t they pick me?
Seems that the apostrophe is a commonly typed character that should be included on the main iPad keyboard without needing to go to the special characters keyboard. Well, it turns out it is. It is hidden with the exclamation point. Just tap and hold the ! key and you’ll be able to choose an apostrophe. Of course if you are typing common words like don’t, can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, etc. then no need to type the apostrophe at all. Autocorrect will take care of it for you.
Who says that iPad education apps are for kids? With the Craftsy app you can take online courses for grown-ups for things like quilting, knitting, sewing, cake decorating, jewelry making, food, photography, gardening and more. Now you have no excuse not to do something constructive with your weekends.
A classroom of 20 students need two iPads to help them explore the many apps created for reading, math, phonics and many other content areas. Many of my students do not have access to technology outside of school, so by giving the students the opportunity to explore technology through iPads every day in school they will be practicing the skills that they need to be successful second graders in the 21st Century.
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Just Jigsaw Puzzles is another game from MacMost’s parent company. It is an iPad game where you can assemble a jigsaw puzzle right on your iPad’s screen. You can even decide how many pieces to cut the puzzle into, making it suitable for young children and adults alike. There are lots of options and the game is free. Give it a try!
Apple’s Tuesday announcements included no less than four major new hardware updates and one new product. As expected, they released an iPad mini, a 7.9-inch screen version of the popular iPad, for only $329. In addition, a new thiner iMac, new MacBook Pro and new Mac mini were shown.
The new iPad mini comes alongside a new 4th generation full-size iPad. This new model is more or less the same as the 3rd generation but with a faster A6X processor and the new Lightning dock connector. The iPad mini has all of the same capabilities as the full-size model but with a slower A5 processor similar to the one in the iPad 2.
The new iMac sports a much thiner design and new hard drive options. In addition to opting for a standard hard drive or solid state drive, buyers can get an Apple Fusion drive which is a combination of the two.
A new Mac mini also offers the Fusion drive as an option, and features improved specifications over the previous model in almost all respects. A new MacBook Pro model was also announced with a 13-inch Retina display.
The new iPads can be pre-ordered tomorrow and will start shipping on Nov. 2. The new Mac mini and MacBook Pro are available now, but the iMac won’t be available until November.
A bit a patience can lead to a more secure Mac. Before you click on a link in an email, wait a second for a tool tip to appear that shows the URL of the web page you are about to visit. Then check it to make sure it is what you expect before clicking.
