This Week's Sponsor:

Drafts, Tally, Terminology, Simple Scan

Quality Productivity & Utility Apps, Ready for OS 26, from Agile Tortoise


The iPad: Now Used To Write The Hungarian Constitution

Of all the clever and original uses for the iPad we’ve seen in the past months, there was nothing quite like what’s going on with Jozsef Szajer’s iPad. In a video first showed at the iPad 2 keynote, Apple proved that the tablet has been deployed in a variety of markets and segments in 2010: from education to hospitals, enterprise, small businesses, restaurants and musicians the iPad and, most of all, the 65,000 apps that run on it have changed many people’s professional and personal lives. But Szajer, ruling party lawmaker in the European Parliament, is using the device to draft Hungary’s new constitution.

You heard that right. The Hungarian next “magna charta” is being written on the iPad as we speak – we don’t know through which applications exactly, but Szajer says [Google Translation] the best feature of the iPad is its “instant on”, the fact that he doesn’t have to wait for it to load and is always available. This is indeed one of the aspects Apple also heavily promotes on the product’s webpage. Szajer also goes on to specify that he’s writing different drafts on the iPad, reviewing proposals received from fellow parliament members, assistants and citizens and quickly copying and pasting text around as he wants. The new constitution focuses on ” raises the level of public services, greater transparency in public affairs and equal opportunities for citizens to seek new technological solutions”. New solution like the iPad, apparently.

We wish the best of luck (and congratulations) to Szajer in his effort to rewrite the rules with a piece of technology that has already rewritten many tech industry rules. And if he’s going to get an iPad 2, typing should be much better with the lighter and thinner form factor. [via Bloomberg]


iPad Becomes More Enterprise Friendly With VMWare View

In what is definitely a big win for the iPad in the Enterprise world, the fairly ubiquitous VMWare has released a new iPad app named VMWare View. The iPad app allows users to access and use virtual desktops from a company’s VMWare servers.

VMWare joins Citrix another fairly ubiquitious company that offers enterprise virtualisation services in offering a similar iPad app. As Robert Scoble notes (and you can watch him talk with some of the VMWare executives after the break) these virtualisation apps will become more usable and functional with the iPad 2’s external display function, cameras and speed increase.

Read more


Australian Government Wants To Classify Mobile Games

The Australian Government has today revealed that it plans to enforce a classification of review of any mobile games (and possibly apps) that are referred to the Australian Classification Board after a complaint. Any app referred for review would have to receive a rating of MA15+ or lower to remain on sale legally in Australia.

The Government has said that if the proposal goes through it would force Apple and Google to comply by removing any app that is banned by the Classification Board as well as ensuring that any app that has gone through classification would have its classification displayed for consumers to see.

Currently there is ambiguity over classifying new online content including mobile apps for the iPhone or for Google’s Android OS in Australia with some suggesting that technically every game should be classified, an impossible feat with the number of apps in the App Store alone. The new proposal by the Home Affairs Minister would only require classification of game apps that the Classification Board receive complaints about and the Minister believes that there would be “very, very few games” that would be refused classification (banned).

Read more


Instaprint Could Well Be The Coolest Use Of Instagram’s API Yet

Just like the launch of Instagram itself, the Instagram API has enjoyed some substantial success with a number of cool web apps that have utilized it. But none of those really matter much at all once you see Instaprint, its not a webapp but an actual printer that can print any Instagram photo onto Polaroid-esque paper for those tagged at a certain location or with a specific hashtag.

Right now Instaprint has set up a demo box at SXSW and plans to eventually offer to rent the printers out, which sounds great for big events or promotional campaigns that want to utilise social media in a new and unique way. You can try it out right now by tagging any Instagram photo with the hashtag #Instaprint and see it being printed live in the Ustream video after the break (although as of writing it wasn’t live).

Read more


Celeste Brings Tightly Integrated Bluetooth Sharing To iOS

Coming later this week to the Cydia Store is a new tweak from CocoaNuts called Celeste, a handy little tweak that will allow you to send and receive various audio, video and image files to and from your iOS device using Bluetooth. Whilst there have been other apps and tweaks distributed through Cydia that brought Bluetooth sharing to iOS such as iBlueNova, Celeste seems to be a much more tightly and neatly integrated tweak.

Celeste keeps it simple by just indicating, via an inverted Bluetooth icon on the status bar, that the tweak is running and then to share files is just a click or two away. Another feature that others have lacked is that Celeste will also make sure any songs and videos you receive over Bluetooth will automatically be synced over into iTunes, as if you had purchased it. Jump the break for a demo of how the tweak works.

Read more


Supposed Prototype 64GB iPhone Demoed On Video

The “XXGB” iPhone (which I joked was the 20 GB iPhone) that’s been rumored to be floating around in prototype fashion now has a hands on where a quick glimpse into the iPhone’s settings reveals its true capacity. M.I.C. Gadget compared the prototype to the original iPhone 4 model Gizmodo obtained, and came to the conclusion that these models had somehow found their way out of Foxconn’s factory in Shenzhen. Catch the demo after the break.

Read more


Twitter Makes Quick Bar Less Intrusive With Update For iOS 4.3

Along with bug fixes related to app startup and location services, Twitter has met users half-way by stopping the Quick Bar from intrusively popping over the timeline as you scroll in version 3.3.1. Intended to update users on what’s happening the Twitter sphere, users were outraged at the inability to disable the distracting pop-over. Twitter has permanently affixed the Quick Bar at the top of the timeline, which you can scrub your thumb over to scroll through recent trending topics. Twitter isn’t backing down on a feature they claim user’s want – I say let individuals decide how they want to browse Twitter.

You can get the latest update for Twitter in the App Store.


Roxio Toast 11, Record & Convert Anything

Given all of the digital media you work with, shouldn’t there be a suite of tools that enable you to covert those old DVDs to your iPad, to record anything currently playing on your Mac, or to grab the latest shows from your TiVo? I don’t know… maybe something like Roxio’s Toast 11 Titanium and Titanium Pro? Fans of Roxio rely on Toast as their primary video conversion tool, or may have found it to be their lifesaving application that was able to rip proprietary disks from old camcorders into something iMovie can work with. In Toast 11, a brand new user interface is accompanied by a slew of new features making it the most friendly iteration yet for users of all kinds looking to convert family video and share projects with friends online.

Read more


iTunes Updated to 10.2.1

Apple is on update roll this afternoon, first delivering Java updates and now offering a new version of iTunes which improves compatibility with iOS devices running iOS 4.3. iTunes 10.2.1 will be able to take advantage of improved Home Sharing, where you’ll be able to stream music across your local network from iOS 4.3 devices once Home Sharing is enabled in the iPod settings. You can download it using the link below, or simply check for software updates in your Mac menu bar.

DownloadiTunes 10.2.1