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Posts tagged with "iPad"

Our Choice, Proving Push Pop Press Will Revolutionize Digital Publishing

When Co-Founders Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris set out to change the world of digital publishing, not many would have guessed that Al Gore would be at the forefront of their first title until Our Choice was demoed as a TED Talk, where the workings and interactions of the first title built using the new platform were revealed. Today, Our Choice is available at an introductory $4.99 on the App Store for the iPhone and the iPad, delivering rich interactive content via a completely custom app built on a native backbone. The Push Pop Press platform is seeking to revolutionize how content is published and made interactive, and my initial impressions with Our Choice can validate that cause. What’s at stake isn’t just the future of the new digital platform, but a complete rethinking of the traditional digital magazine or newspaper. The App Store is flooded with projects traditionally based on Adobe technologies, and while it was a good first attempt, the content we view needs to be intuitive, interactive, but most importantly fluid and un-static. Push Pop Press is the ideal platform to revolutionize how we think of traditional media, and Our Choice is the launch title proving that this new vision for content is a clear winner.

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iPhone App Transmits GPS Data to WiFi iPad Using Personal Hotspot

Back in March, a series of reports from several blogs and publications claimed a WiFi-only iPad connected to an iPhone via Personal Hotspot was able to receive GPS data through the established connection, even if the iPad itself didn’t have any GPS capabilities. If GPS data was being transmitted thanks to Personal Hotspot, many speculated getting a 3G iPad was basically useless as the last advantage of internal GPS could be replaced by an iPhone and proper tethering. With Personal Hotspot and wireless GPS data transmission, many said, users could install navigation software on a WiFi-only iPad and obtain GPS points thanks, again, to Personal Hotspot and iOS 4.3. However, while the reports about WiFi iPads displaying semi-accurate locations in the Maps app were accurate, rumors about GPS and Personal Hotspot were quickly debunked as, it turned out, a WiFi iPad couldn’t rely on tethering for location purposes for more than a few minutes, as also demoed on video here. Rather, it seemed like a WiFi iPad could get location info while on the move thanks to WiFi access point and hotspot discovery – considering the recent debate on Apple and location cache, this doesn’t surprise anymore.

As it usually happens in the Apple community, though, what started as an inaccurate report or a simple proof of concept eventually turned into an app available for download on the App Store. AirLocation, a $0.99 universal app released today, enables WiFi iPad users to achieve the workflow described above: once connected to an iPhone using Personal Hotspot, an iPad running AirLocation will be able to fetch accurate GPS data from the iPhone and update your location in real-time as you move. AirLocation will have to run on the iPhone as well in order for the whole setup to work. I’ve personally tested the application during a 20-minute car trip to Viterbo, my town, and it really works as advertised: although AirLocation doesn’t come with all the features of the Maps app for iOS, it does keep track of your location in real-time on the iPad using GPS and it didn’t stop working after a few minutes. I could see the blue dot indicating my location moving on screen at the same time of the iPhone, which was transmitting data via Personal Hotspot.

AirLocation doesn’t come with many functionalities, but it does one thing well: getting accurate GPS data with iOS 4.3’s Personal Hotspot. Get it here.

The “Re-Imagined” TweetDeck 2.0 iPhone App Hits The App Store

TweetDeck has today released its completely new 2.0 iPhone app that has received a “Hollywood re-imagining”, being rebuilt from the ground up to be “fast, flexibe and full-on powerful.” The update, which has been a long time coming, adds a number of new features and improvements whilst retaining the “guiding principles” of the original.

One of TweetDeck’s new and innovative features is the use of pinching on a column to access the columns’ settings so that any combinations of Twitter timelines, mentions, DMs, Facebook feeds and so on can be merged into one customized column. The whole user interface has also been redesigned, following the direction that their Android and Chrome apps have gone in, and of course it now takes advantage of the Retina display.

Also improved is multiple account handling and gestures, which although not extensive as those present in Tweetbot, are greatly improved adding the ‘pull to refresh’ and pinch for column settings gestures and general improvements in swiping through your various feeds. Finally there is built-in Deck.ly support, letting you write those longer messages on Twitter without hassle.

The 2.0 version comes after “several months of feverish work” and a promised iPad revamp of the app is also coming in a Universal binary “in the next couple of weeks”. In fact technically TweetDeck 2.0 is not an update and the old versions of the app have been temporarily removed from the App Store to avoid confusion. So don’t go to the updates tab of the App Store, it won’t appear there, you’ll have to download the new TweetDeck app from the actual store.

Jump the break for some more screenshots of the new update.

[Via TechCrunch]

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Apple No Longer Pursuing “POD” Trademark

Seven years in the making, Apple is giving up on pursuing the POD trademark. While this doesn’t have an effect on on Apple’s iPod brand, it does open up the opportunity for competitors to brand their products using the POD nomenclature. Patently Apple makes this point clear:

Any competitor who wishes to brand a device with the word “Pod” is able to do so without any legal ramifications from Apple. That should make copycats like Samsung, very happy indeed. Will someone try to introduce something like an “ePod” device in the future? – Yes, more than likely.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has published Apple’s abandonment, citing April 13th, 2011 as the day Apple dropped the trademark. Although Apple is no longer pursuing securing the Pod trademark, do they have anything to worry about? The iPod is a household name, and consumers are every skeptical of “copycat” products in the marketplace. You only need to look at iPad and MP3 competitors to see how well Apple dominates, and I doubt anyone else using the word “POD” is going to confuse Apple educated consumers.

[via Patently Apple]

Kickstarter Project: Smart Shell - iPad 2 Case That Works with Smart Covers

Alex Britton of SnapCases.com has an idea to keep the back of your iPad 2 scratch free while letting you use the Apple Smart Cover you have purchased - the Smart Shell.

Apple’s Smart Cover doubles as a screen protector and a stand; it even turns your device off or on when hiding or revealing the screen. The Smart Cover doesn’t offer complete protection to the back of the iPad 2, so it is still exposed to scratches and dents. The Smart Shell helps out where the Smart Cover doesn’t, it’s a 0.8 milimeter thin shell and prevents those ugly scratches and dents. Additionally, it comes in a clear color so you can still show off that beautiful Apple logo. The Smart Cover snaps right onto the back of the iPad leaving space to attach the Smart Cover.

Video after the break. Read more