A $100,000 pilot program at two elementary schools in Hancock County will allow hundreds of fourth graders to get iPads and start reading books, doing math and other different assignments on them. The program, which will take place at Weirton Heights and Allen T. Allison elementary schools, was paid for with the help of federal grant money, but teachers are already looking for ways to completely customize the iPad experience for each child. Read more
$100,000 School Program Gets Every 4th-Grader An iPad
This 5-Row iOS Keyboard Makes My Typing Faster | Cydia Store
5-Row Keyboard iOS 4 is a $0.99 tweak available in the Cydia Store which, you guessed it, adds a fifth row to the standard iOS keyboard. Most specifically, it adds a numeric row so that you won’t have to constantly change the keyboard layout when having to type numbers. That happens every day to me, especially when typing password, and it’s incredibly annoying.
This hack makes the keyboard bigger, but I haven’t really noticed any difference. Actually, my mobile typing has improved as I can get sentences and passwords done faster. To configure the tweak, install it from Cydia and activate it as a theme in Winterboard. Then open your keyboard settings in General -> Keyboard, select your default keyboard and apply the new 5-Row layout.
Useful.
I Just Met The Real AirPlay
Until today, I never really experienced a real-life AirPlay situation. Sure, I configured a couple of devices to work with it, I even hacked my iPhone and iPad to become AirPlay speakers and played around with some tweaks from Cydia, but all this was mainly done in order to guarantee coverage for MacStories. A few minutes ago I finally met the real AirPlay. It wasn’t planned. It just sort of happened, and it was great. Read more
Infinifolders Updated, Now Supports iOS 4.2.1 On iPad | Cydia Store
Infinifolders by chpwn is one of our favorite Cydia tweaks here at MacStories: not only it allows you to put as many apps as you wish inside iOS folders (current limitation is 12 on the iPhone, 20 on the iPad), it also lets you customize the way folders become “scrollable” and activate a neat vertical paging functionality.
The latest update, version 1.3.3-1, adds full iOS 4.2.1 support for the iPad, which can now enjoy the power of unlimited folders as well. I’ve been testing the update on my jailbroken iPad and it works perfectly.
If you’re considering a jailbreak for your iPad running iOS 4.2 but looking “limited” in certain features, Infinifolders is one of those tweaks that leverage the real potentialities of the Cydia community. Recommended.
Next Angry Birds Update Coming On Valentine’s Day?
First came the iPhone version. Then a bigger iPad one. With the two versions selling like hotcakes in the App Store, Rovio released a Halloween edition. Last week, they updated it to include some Christmas-themed levels and renamed the new version to “Seasons”.
Angry Birds is an unstoppable pop culture phenomenon, something Daring Fireball’s John Gruber calls “today’s Pac Man”. We all know Angry Birds is insanely popular, yet Rovio doesn’t seem to be willing to stop and enjoy the money anytime soon. According to a rumor published by Pocket Gamer, the developers are already eyeing a Valentine’s Day release in February 2011. Read more
Kid Who Sold White iPhone Kits Forced To Shut Down His Website
Remember Fei Lam, the kid who made a small fortune selling white iPhone conversion kits and received a letter from a private investigator on behalf of Apple to end operations? Look at the sidebar here on MacStories, there’s a promo banner for his old website “WhiteiPhone4Now.com”.
Two days ago I noticed the website was down, but I thought Lam was just changing DNS or something. After all, he seemed pretty sure of the fact that he wanted to keep on selling his kits no matter what. Well it turns out, Apple won. In an email to Cult of Mac Lam confirmed he had to shut the website down, “possibly permanently”.
No further details have been provided, but we can only assume the story got serious the moment Lam claimed he wouldn’t stop selling conversion kits and Apple legal was after him. Foxconn also confirmed they didn’t know anything about white iPhone parts being sold to Lam, so it’s very likely that he got them from grey market. Who knows.
We wish the best of luck to Lam for his future efforts, which we’re pretty sure won’t include selling alternative Apple components.
A White iPhone 4 Walks Into An Apple Store…
…and leaves a sign of its appearance on Apple’s promotional material. As noted by a 9to5mac reader, there’s some signage going on at the Apple Stores in the U.S. which seems to confirm a report from Reuters back in October about a delay of the white iPhone 4 until “Spring 2011”.
In October, Reuters reported:
Apple Inc said on Tuesday that it would delay release of the white iPhone yet again, this time until next spring.
“We’re sorry to disappoint customers waiting for the white iPhone again,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said. When asked why the white phone would again be delayed, Muller declined to comment.
Of course Apple might delay the white unit again come Spring 2011 to never ship the actual product, but the fact that Apple’s own promo stuff mentions this release date is noteworthy.
And hey, if the white iPhone will never see the light of day – you might just be lucky enough to walk into a bar and find one.
Norman Foster To Design Apple’s New Campus In Cupertino?
According to El Economista, British architect Norman Foster will be the head of operations to design Apple’s new campus in Cupertino. Sources familiar to the matter told El Economista that the new campus – which happens to be HP’s old campus, recently bought by Apple – is one of the company’s most important projects, and will be “revolutionary” in a way that will be built on top of modern “green technologies” and renewable energy resources. Read more
“Steve Wozniak Is A Silicon Valley Treasure”→
“Steve Wozniak Is A Silicon Valley Treasure”
As he took us through the museum, it became apparent how brilliant an engineer he is. He stopped at the Apple-1, the company’s first computer and the machine that first put computers into the grasp of “the rest of us.” His vision for the Apple-1 when it shipped in 1976 was simple – and profound.
“I didn’t design this computer to make a lot of money and start a company,” he said. “I wanted to accelerate the world advancement in the social revolution.” The Apple-1 would be a new way to communicate. A new way for the individual to exercise power.
He walked over to the Apple II on display nearby.
“This is my real gem,” he said, “the greatest design of my life.” And no one – not a docent, no guard, nobody – said a word when he pulled off the top panel to show the machine’s motherboard. “About half as many chips,” he said.
Great story.