Submitted by Marshall Walker on
Apple on Sunday announced an education-focused keynote scheduled for March 27th. The "field trip" event will take place at Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago. Apple's last education event took place in 2012. Its main highlights included $15 textbooks for iBooks and the Author app for Mac. Apple did not release any hardware at the event.
Submitted by Marshall Walker on
I'm not sure if there is a demand for iPad family bands, but if you were looking to form one, Rockmate is the app you'll need! The new app transforms your iPad into a music studio allowing you to compose, record and play songs with up to 4 people.
Rockmate features everything you need to record and share music with your family and friends. You just have to choose what instrument you want to play, guitar, drum kit or keyboards, and use the smart metronome and a real-time looper to kick start your iPad music career. The app is being offered at the introductory price of $0.99 for one week. Hurry and download it now because it will jump to $3.99 on December 21.
Submitted by Marshall Walker on
Apple announced the best iPhone and iPad apps of 2011 on iTunes on Thursday. Dead Space won Best iPad Game of the Year, Snapspeed won Best iPad App of the Year, and Tiny Tower won the Best Game of the Year for the iPhone. The top five selling iPad apps of 2011 were; Angry Birds, Pages, Angry Birds Seasons HD, GarageBand and Angry Birds Rio HD.
Submitted by Marshall Walker on
It's amazing how Atari games continue to reinvent themselves. The Atari's Greatest Hits app for the iPad is getting a companion called the Atari Arcade: Duo Powered joystick. The new joystick is reminiscent of the popular iCade cabinet shell, but will probably carry a cheaper price tag, and will be carried at retail stores like Walmart and Target.
There isn't much info on the Atari Arcade yet (like when it will be available), but just like the iCade, it allows users to play classic Atari 2600 and arcade games via the Atari Greatest Hits app. The app features classic games like Asteroids and Centipede, and is available for the iPhone or iPad.
Submitted by Marshall Walker on
I have to admit, I understand why some people prefer Android phones. They just want a mobile device to make phone calls, and enjoy the occasional bells and whistles. They might not take a lot of photos with their phone, but that doesn't mean they never will.
Android allows people to test the waters of the smartphone without having to invest heavily in an iPhone (or maybe some people just hold a grudge against Steve Jobs). Whatever the reason, Apple fans are like film geeks pushing widescreen on people who want to watch Blu-ray in fullscreen. It doesn't make much sense, but who really cares. However, tablets are another story, a tablet is more of a privilege than a necessity to some. So it makes sense that more tablet buyers prefer the iPad over other devices.
A report published by Robert W. Baird, a Milwaukee-based wealth management and analyst company, revealed that 95 percent of people who own a tablet or plan to buy a tablet prefer the iPad. Ten percent chose the Hewlett-Packard TouchPad, eight percent chose the Samsung Tab 10.1, and four percent preferred the BlackBerry Playbook.
Submitted by Marshall Walker on
Walmart announced that they're closing their MP3 download store the same day they launched Vudu's movie streaming service for the iPad.
To avoid the restrictions of Apple's app store, the retail giant decided not to offer an iPad app. Instead the Vudu icon for your iPad home screen redirects you to the Vudu website, where you can rent or buy over 20,000 movies and watch them online. Rental prices start at $4 for standard definition to $6 for full high definition. I guess Walmart's low prices don't apply to the iPad. A copy of Beetlejuice goes for $9.99. You can probably find the same movie on DVD for $5 at a Walmart store, or stream it all month for the same price through Netflix.
Vudu also allows you to stream movies through other devices like Internet-capable HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc players and the PlayStation 3.
Submitted by Marshall Walker on
Learning a valuable lesson from the music industry, newspapers and magazines have been trying to figure out way not to hand their lives over to Steve Jobs. The newest trend is offering free tablets with subscriptions to their publications. The Tribune Company, who owns newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun, is looking to develop their own tablet to compete with the iPad.
The Tribune has been working on a possible promotion where new subscribers to any of their papers can receive a free or discounted tablet. For this to happen, they will need to team up with a manufacturer, like Samsung, and a cellular carrier.
CNN writes that the "tablet is expected to run a modified version of Google's Android operating system and prominently feature software for the owner's hometown newspaper." However, developing the device turned out harder than anticipated and progress has been met with some delays.
Submitted by Marshall Walker on
Frustrated iPad owners don't have to rely on tricky workarounds to install the Google+ app on their iPads any longer. Google announced on Monday that the Google Plus app is now available for the iPad and iPod touch.
Submitted by Marshall Walker on
Hours after TechCrunch discovered a hidden code for the Facebook iPad app, Facebook closed the door leaving many iPad users stuck out in the cold. Luckily for Facebook fans, the coder known as Chpwn, found a way around the FaceBook block for jailbreak users.
If you're an iPad owner who can't wait for the official release, all you need is the FaceForward Cydia app to install Facebook on your device.
Submitted by Marshall Walker on
The Google+ iPhone app has been a hot commodity since its launch this week, but what about the iPad and iPod touch? Currently the Google Plus app only works on the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0 or later, but a Redmond Pie reader found an easy workaround to install the popular app on other Apple devices.
To learn how to install the jailbreak free Google Plus iPhone app on your iPad, check out the iDownload Blog team's "How To" YouTube video, and our step-by-step instructions below.
Remember, the Google Plus app was created for the iPhone, so it's not a great fit for the iPad display resolution. You can try zooming in, or if your iPad is jailbroken using RetinaPad like the person in the video, to try and make it look better.
