Ssmug Newsletter Feb 10
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February 2010 NEWS iPad Editorial During the introduction my daughter I have not ‘sourced’ many of the articles asked me if this was going to be my lead in this issue - the best I can do is “all story. Here it is! over the web”. My sources are (generally) Wired, CNET, iLounge First, pictures from Apple’s website: Daring Fireball, Infinite Loop, and even CNN and The Chicago Tribune. Many stories are repeated in all publications. The Editor Program Schedule All scheduled meetings are to be held at the Grande Prairie Public Library from 7:00 PM to 8:45 February 9: Bento Database and Voice to Text Todd Smith February 16: SIG Apple Mail March 9: Global Positioning System John Massura April 13 How Computers Actually Work Bill Geraci May 11: TBA with TBA June 8: Home Automation Walter Palmer 1 Wednesday January 27, 2010 11:20 $499 FOR 16GB, 32Gb for $599, 64GB for $699 plus $130 for 3G models of all those. Synching and charging are the same as the iPhone and the iPod Touch Accessories: There is a case that converts into a stand, and, although the on screen keys are big enough to type on, a connectable keyboard. “ Ars Technica Live Streaming Weblog Jacqui Cheng Quoting Steve: Always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts …products that are intuitive, easy to use, fun to use…a combination of these two things have allowed us to make these creative products like the iPad Breakthrough deal with AT&T…first one gets you 250MB of data per month; most people will get by on that, for $14.99 …unlimited plans for $29.99. How do you turn it on and manage it? You can activate right on iPad itself and there's no contract. Prepay. They will be shipping in 60 days worldwide 2 Officially called the Apple iPad Dock large multi-touch display and will be Connector to VGA Adapter ($29), this available for just $9.99 each. custom Apple cable enables the iPad to be connected to a projector or monitor to ‘You’ll Rule the World’ display its screen content -- or in the 10:52 AM future, separate content -- at 1024x768 by John Gruber resolution. When used with this cable, Alan Kay, regarding his reaction to the audio is performed solely through the iPhone in January 2007: iPad's speakers or headphone port. When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of Based upon Apple's earlier iPod Camera it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal Connector, which sold for the same computer worth criticizing. So at the end price, the new Apple iPad Camera of the presentation, Steve came up to me Connection Kit ($29) comes with both a and said: Is the iPhone worth criticizing? Dock Connector-to-USB adapter and a And I said: Make the screen five inches Dock Connector-based SD Card reader, by eight inches, and you’ll rule the enabling you to connect either a camera world. or an SD Card to transfer pictures to the iPad. Pictures can be organized in [Editorial] Photos and used with various My thoughts, for what they’re worth: applications, including iWork apps, then It’s a little bigger than I would like – transferred back to your computer. 5X8 inches would be better. The price is half what is was rumored, I wonder if Apple's more complex dock for the iPad the $800 wasn’t a deliberate leak so they is called iPad Keyboard Dock ($69), could sound inexpensive, still, not bad. combining the features of the standard iPad Dock (Dock Connector pass- What is bad is that they still use AT&T. through and audio line-out) with a Their network is not as good as modified version of Apple's latest Verizon’s – in my opinion. aluminum keyboard. The keyboard contains function keys that control the Tablet makers rethinking things in iPad's brightness, volume level, and iPod wake of iPad's $499 price music playback features, as well as calling up search, the home screen, and a by Jon Stokes couple of other shortcuts. It enables Infinite Loop users who type a lot to dock their iPads in a reclined position, connect a wall Competing tablet makers are adapter for charging (not included), and reevaluating their pricing strategy in the use a "real" keyboard. wake of Apple's iPad announcement, according to a rumor in the Digitimes. (Jeremy Horwitz, Editor in Chief, The article cites the usual unnamed iLounge) sources in claiming that companies like ASUS and MSI had expected Apple's Apple executive Phil Schiller gave a iPad to debut at $1,000, and were demonstration of the new version of planning to undercut that price by 20 to iWork built specifically for the iPad. All 30 percent with their own, presumably three applications, Keynote, Pages and Android-based offerings. But with the Numbers have been reworked for the iPad base model coming in at $499—the price of a decent netbook—the 3 companies are now going to have to control unit with snap-on rotors. This compete on something besides price. was described as a toy. Not with a TV camera in its nose. Your editor wants ++++ one. Parrot shows iPhone-controlled +++++ AR.Drone toy I have not commented about CES before in this newsletter, but this year is an (from CES) exception. Items from the reports that By Charles Starrett aroused my interest are 3-D technology Senior Editor, iLounge Published: (it’s crude, but it will get better, how Wednesday, January 6, 2010 much is always the question), new and Parrot, primarily known for its wireless clever uses of the iPhone/iPod Touch, mobile accessories, has unveiled the Parrot convergence between television and AR.Drone, a quadricopter piloted via an computers, and a single laptop with a iPhone or iPod touch. The AR.Drone’s translucent lid/screen. It’s a one way companion application allows users to fly in barrier between the computer user and a real-world environment, complete with the world. Details can be found at places objects and conditions to account for, while like WIRED News, CNET, CNN, and simultaneously playing a video game on the probably others. device’s screen. The app uses the accelerometer and command buttons for ++++ control, while the Wi-Fi-connected AR.Drone employs a wide angle camera and high speed camera, an accelerometer, a From Wired News: It seems that the gyro, an ultrasound sensor, and an advanced iPhone/iPod Touch is becoming a computer to make piloting accessible to both popular attachment to firearms as savvy and inexperienced users alike. Parrot ballistics computers. (Side Note: The plans to make an open SDK available to first computers were used for compiling developers soon, and plans to release the Census Data and to figure ballistics for AR.Drone to consumers sometime later this cannon fire. Ballistics came much year at a currently undetermined price. earlier. An early leader in the second Continue reading to watch a demo video field was Leonardo Da Vinci. Much of showing the device in action. the early work got applied to astronomy before the ink was dry.) ++++ Apple and Nokia Trade Lawsuits Nokia sued Apple about a month ago on the grounds of patent infringement. Watch the video: Nokia claims that just about everything http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ne that Apple makes infringes on one of ws/comments/parrot-shows-iphone- their patents. Apple has sued back. controlled-ar.drone-toy/ (Personal thoughts: In situations like this what the entity that filed the first suit You’ll have to watch the video to see the wants is a juicy out-of-court settlement. ‘real’ Quadricopter There is a central Apple’s countersuit is to tell Nokia that 4 they can forget it. Please note that when Apple’s share of sales good – a Apple was not doing so well, it wasn’t little better than expected. sued often. Now that Apple is doing well, other companies want some of their money. This is one of the things Bill Gerci was referring to at the January meeting when he used the phrase “Corporate Backstabbing”. ++++ McDonalds to offer free wi-fi in as many of its restaurants as can be (Source: World of Apple) managed. ASAP. Source: All my news sources. ++++ Google and China in Battle (all over the web) Google and China have been locked in an ongoing series of battles. Early in January, it was announced that China had hacked the Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents. Just today (January 18) it was announced that now the Gmail accounts of foreign reporters in China have been hacked. China has said that Google is complaining because of economic reasons. Maybe the Chinese are truly blind to the Source: Ars Technica, also known as concept of freedom of expression. Infinite Loop. ++++ ++++ Google is to introduce competition for the iPhone. Like Apple they have seen the value of controlling both the hardware and software. 5 Uses for the iPhone – attachment to a rifle used to calculate wind and distance Meta-Data – usually involving tracking information. edits in a document - can also get a lawyer in trouble if the other side is able Google’s Chrome browser has moved to see and use it. This included contract into third place, pushing Safari to 4th. I bargaining as well as litigation. prefer the way that Safari auto complete works rather than the Firefox/Chrome Google Wave – a telephone number method of using it as a search term.