Yesterday Apple came out with a way to make school life easier. Interactive textbooks on the iPad will not only engage the student in the material. It will also eliminate having to deal with health issues from lugging 40 pounds of books.

The idea is not new as companies have been trying to fix this since the CD-ROM came out, maybe even before. I have on my 20th Anniversary Macintosh an encyclopedia on CD- ROM with interactive content. That Mac is not portable but the concept is sound. Put that on an iBook of its day ( running Mac OS 9 ) and you have interactive content mobile for research.

What is new is the ease of finding and loading the interactive textbooks in iBooks. iPad is the best eReader out there and it is also the best research tool out there. The majority of my research for my Graduate studies is performed on my iPad. I can keep many books open and flip through them while saving my place.

My ebooks are in PDF format currently from my University and I do wish for them to be interactive. They are just a File/Print copy of the original published textbook. It is a step in the right direction but iBooks raises the bar a lot.

Kudos Apple for helping future students be more engaged to do the best they can.

Tags: ipadlife201201

It’s a new year, which means we have to review the one which just passed. Yes, this is a tiring exercise for most of us. During the first week of the year, we want to look forward, not back at a year which is no more. This article also happens to be coming on the heels of all those “year in review” newspapers, magazines, and TV broadcasts from the past week. Why do another one?

Think back to last year at this time. I made ten predictions about Apple in 2011. Why not see if I was anywhere close? Then, when we’re done, how about I give you ten for the new year?

1. SSDs will appear in iMacs and potentially Mac minis and laptops other than the MacBook Air.

Sure enough, SSDs have popped up in iMacs, Mac minis, and MacBook Pros. Tack on a point for me here.

2. Although OS X 10.7 (Lion) will include many iOS features, most users will bypass them and use the traditional Mac OS interface instead–unless they are recent “switchers” who came to Apple because of the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

This seems to be the case. I honestly don’t know anyone using Launchpad. Even at a recent Apple tech conference for educators, company reps were using the Finder. It’s basically a successor to Panels (from OS 9), an optional interface for those who need simplification. I could see it picking up more steam in educational environments as more schools go to Lion, but at this point, if you’re a Launchpad user, you’re in the minority. Score one point here.

3. The Mac App Store will be only a mixed success.

If you had asked me this question in January, the answer would have been yes. It did pick up steam as the year went on, but two events triggered a sudden increase in volume. First, Apple pulled its boxed retail software from store shelves, forcing the use of the Mac App Store. Second, the release of Lion led to a huge increase in popularity, as its distribution took place over the Mac App Store (where it is now the #1 selling download). No points here, ending my two-prediction scoring streak.

4. Optical drives will become optional on some models or disappear entirely.

They did on one model not named MacBook Air: the Mac mini. I do expect to see them vanish on more computers in 2012, especially smaller MacBook Pros, but sure enough, at least one model eliminated this standby. Score one point.

5. The iPod Classic will be discontinued.

I had almost forgotten about this prediction until New Years Eve, when a buddy was using one in his car en route to the bowling alley. In fact, I had almost forgotten about the iPod Classic itself until then. For audiophiles like my friend, who has 14,000+ songs (and a bunch of movies), they still make sense until larger SSDs are reasonably affordable. The Classic lives on, and my point is denied for this question.

6. There will be no legitimate replacement for the XServe.

Do Mac Pro and Mac mini servers count? Probably not. Cloud computing represents the future of servers, and Apple sees this. Rack-mounted Macs will be stuck alongside ImageWriter IIs and extra copies of HyperCard as far as Apple is concerned. Tack on another point.

7. iWork’s market share will remain static.

Where was our new version this year? There were rumors going around about an iWork update a year ago, but currently we’re still stuck with iWork 09. The share doesn’t seem to have changed much on computers, although the programs are selling well in the App Store and are generally well-liked on iOS. I’ll give myself a half point here, only because of the high sales of iOS devices, which can only add to a market share of an overall product (when OS is not a factor).

8. iPhone sales will jump dramatically in the first quarter.

Indeed, they jumped in the first quarter, due in no large part to Verizon becoming a carrier for the popular device. The iPhone has sold like hotcakes all year. In fact, even this one-time skeptic about the product (who blasted the iPhone 4 on this very site when it came out and wrote on Low End Mac that it would be another Newton) bought one this year, albeit in the fourth quarter. One point here.

9. When the iPhone 5 comes out, quality assurance will be higher.

iPhone 5? What was I thinking? This popular search term is, as of now, an unreleased product. Still, the iPhone 4S does seem to be of great quality. I did get a bumper for mine just to play it safe, but I know several people using their iPhone 4S without one who haven’t encountered any difficulties with it. I’ll give myself a half point, losing credit only because I said “iPhone 5”.

10. The iPad 2 will be a huge success and will continue to grow the device’s popularity.

Yes, yes, and once again, yes. This was the other new product I picked up in the fourth quarter, and I’m not sure how I lived so long using laptops as my ultra-portable web machines. Score a point here.

7 points out of a possible 10. Not too bad for a strange year in which Apple lost its CEO, delayed a hyped product, and shortages from Japan affected nearly everyone in the technology industry.

Now, on to the 2012 predictions!

1. A new, supercharged iMac will replace the Mac Pro.

The power users will complain about a lack of slots, but Thunderbolt should be able to step up to replace them once more peripherals and interfaces are added. (Remember the hubs for replication of old proprietary devices when USB came out?) Internal connectors could do the same in some cases. Monitors can always be added to iMacs, so those needing more than one display can relax. For server customers, expect a better Mac mini server (although I do expect cloud computing to cover most of what servers were used for in the near future). The Mac Pro is a nice machine, but it’s obvious Apple is de-emphasizing it, getting everyone ready for a change.

2. Further elimination of optical drives will take place throughout the year.

They disappeared on Mac minis last year. With thinner MacBook Pros rumored to be on the way, there’s reason to believe the optical drives will start vanishing here as well. Apple did manage to kill off the 3.5” floppy, so I wouldn’t put it past them to render CDs and DVDs obsolete next year. Some higher-end computers will probably still have them, but this isn’t something I expect to stick around much longer.

3. The discontinuation of the iPod Classic will occur this year.

I know I predicted this last year, but this time I see it happening. Apple is getting away from hard drives and going to SSDs whenever possible. Since I see those dropping in price next year, the Classic will probably suffer the fate of discontinuation.

4. Some sort of iWeb replacement will arrive.

It’s obvious iWeb is on its way out. That’s a shame, as it offered some decent templates (though HTML enthusiasts did like to blast some of the underlying code) and was fairly easy to use. My entire (personal) website was created with iWeb, and I’d like to see some alternative pop up soon. Apple will hopefully be able to do this, whether it’s through Pages templates or by introducing a new program (which I could see as being cloud-based).

5. Siri will become available on other Apple products.

This will include the iPad 3, new Macs, and iPod Touches. Of course, I also see it moving out of beta. It’s been a hit so far on the iPhone 4, so I expect Apple will use it for other purposes. Imagine telling the computer to open a document or type a certain number in a particular cell on Numbers!

6. The iPhone 5 will ship in the third quarter.

Those of us who have been with the Mac for a long time are accustomed to long waits for products. System 7 and OS X were both behind schedule. Lotus Jazz became the single greatest piece of vaporware in history in the 1980s. We’re still waiting for the Cube’s production to resume (remember, it was never “discontinued”; rather, it was “suspended”). I don’t suspect, however, that the iPhone 5 will take more than a year to get out. The third quarter seems reasonable all around for this launch. Likewise, expect the iPad 3 to ship during the second quarter so the products can be spread out a bit.

7. Apple’s TV set will either launch around November or wait until next year.

I don’t really see this set coming out until either very late in the year or early next year. It’s going to take some time to work everything out. How will content be managed? What features of iOS will port easily to a television? How can Siri be perfected to work here? Can Apple design something that actually works, rather than the insipid remote designs we get from other companies? What will the set look like? A giant iMac, perhaps? Yes, there are a lot of questions here, and they’ll be answered in time. For now, don’t go anticipating this set just yet.

8. When Apple does release their TV, the Apple TV will be discontinued.

It just wouldn’t make sense to keep it around if its features will be integrated to an actual television set. The Apple TV isn’t the most popular product in the lineup in the first place, perhaps because much of the general public doesn’t quite understand what the device does. Dumping the Apple TV would also be a good idea from a business standpoint, as it would force people to buy the more expensive television set.

9. Apple stock will hold relatively steady throughout the year, with no big growth nor huge loss.

There have been questions about Apple’s long-term outlook for a while, but these concerns were greater after Steve Jobs died. Love him or hate him, Jobs was an amazing businessman who took a company on the brink of bankruptcy and made it one of the two most powerful companies in the world. Tim Cook seems like a good leader, but the shoes of Steve Jobs will be awfully hard to fill. Still, he seems to be a better fit than, say, Mike Spindler or Gil Amelio, especially since Apple is much more established than it was in 1985 when John Sculley took over the company. Investors will probably fear a bit, given the global economy in general and lack of a completely new product until the TV launches. Thankfully, there should be enough left in the pipeline from Jobs to last for a while.

10. Apple will continue its holy war against Android.

It seems we were just fighting against Microsoft over Windows, which was claimed to have copied the Macintosh. As it turns out, both Apple and Microsoft had stolen ideas about GUIs from Xerox. Apple has a much stronger case this time, especially going against a company which only seems destined to fail eventually. Google does output some good products, but has their share of problems. For example, they have almost no customer support to speak of. You’ve got a better chance of speaking directly to Queen Elizabeth II than a Google company representative (that is, one who will tell you what to do instead of searching for the answer online). They also tend to leave their products in beta for a long time and seem to have some answer to everything. Frankly, they just seem like a store brand sometimes. Google+ is the store brand Facebook, for example–it does pretty much the same thing but lacks the name recognition and is shunned by some users for not being “the real deal”. Android is that “generic” iOS clone, but this time, it’s too similar–as a math nut like myself would say, it’s nearly congruent. Steve Jobs said he would fight to the end to make sure Android was shut down for copying his product, and while not all claims may stand, I could see something happening if Apple plays its cards right. Android won’t go away entirely, but perhaps some changes will be made.

There you have it. Ten predictions for 2012. Since I’m feeling generous this year, I’ll toss in an eleventh while I’m at it. On December 24, you’ll be laughing at the Mayans and all those who believed the world would have ended the day before.

Check back in a year. We’ll see how I did this time. Here’s to topping 7 points!

Tags: look back | predictions | sbaret | steve jobs | tim cook

2011 is a year that we all will remember. Even if you are not an Apple fan. Here is why…

Steve Jobs © Apple Inc 2011

Highs in 2011:

iPad 2

No other tablet sine the original iPad raised the bar in tablet computing. The iPad is the successor of the Apple Newton MessagePad, and the iPad 2 builds on the iPad. The speed increases of iPad 2 gives you better working apps. Living the iPad Life© is all about mobile computing on the go with easy access to your information (and no one else that you don’t want to have access).

iPhone 4s with Siri

I am waiting until January 2nd to early upgrade to my iPhone 4s. I cannot wait as this update will give me more speed, same great security, and Siri. I have tested a friends iPhone 4s and Siri is amazing. Don’t forget that Living the iPad Life© includes the iPhone way of life too.

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

This Os update is chaining how we all use our Macs. I have criticized the autosaving feature until last week when it literally saved my butt. I have reversed my opinion of the autosaving and have learned to work with this change, instead of against it from now on. Other features in Lion like gesturing makes working with my MacBook Pro easier.

iOS 5

What can I say – speed on newer devices, iCloud integration, and more. This update makes my life a little bit more easier.

Mac App Store

From a Mac Collector standpoint I have always been bummed about downloadable software with no retail boxes. The physical retail boxes gives you a great look at the product and makes any Mac collection that more personal. Times have changed and the world is clinging onto software being downloaded and installed. The App Store for iOS and now the Mac App Store is providing this. I have many apps on my mac from the Mac App Store and if I need a piece of software that has no retail box to collect, I prefer to get it through the Mac App Store now.

iCloud

Portable computing make easy is finally here with iCloud. Love the capability it gives me. If I need a internet file server (like iDisk from MobileMe) I am using Box.net or my local Pogoplug as these gives me the “file server in the sky” document access I need from time to time. If iCloud get this feature then those 2 services may go bye bye.

MacBook Air – fastest Mac ever, let me explain

With a flash memory hard drive that gives you boot times of Mac OS X Lion of 5-6 seconds means you can get to work faster. Fastest Mac ever means the overall responsiveness, not raw computing power of the 12-core Mac Pro (nothing can touch that for raw computing power). The MacBook Air of 2011 gives you the best and fastest mobile laptop experience. Loading apps, opening/saving data, and anything else that is disk intensive is just blazingly fast.

Lows in 2011:

Loss of Steve Jobs, Apple Visionary

Steve Jobs’ passing means his concept of how computing will impact and intact with other devices may still come to fruition, but I think in a slightly changed way. If it is true that Steve wanted to help people move away from the normal TV viewing experience I believe Steve would of made TV easier to use. Steve’s vision of a iTunes ecosystem was definitely the best way to integrate your mobile and desktop computing devices. I was not sure at first but now that this scenario has played it, I am enjoying every bit of it. Once my music or video is in iTunes I an play it on my iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Macintosh. It just works and my Mac Pro with iTunes became my iTunes content server. Thank you again Steve for your vision and not being afraid to make it a reality.

That is a quick and short review of 2011. More innovations form Apple will come in 2012. Have a Happy New Year!

Tags: iPadLife201112

Just wanted to wish all of The Mac 512 readers a Merry Christmas!

Dont forget that iTunes gift cards still make a great gift. I have many books, music videos, movies, and music I will be buying with my iTunes gift cards.

Take care.

Tags: iPadLife201112

A reader asked a great question regarding what was the first Macintosh hard drive. From my research there two contenders before Apple released their model which really supported the expanded capacity. These two models supported the first Macintosh with a few problems due to the extra storage space. 

From looking at the premier issue of MacWorld (published February 1984), there were two companies that had ads for a hard drive for the original Macintosh. Tecmar Inc. had a 5MB “Apple Jack Winchester” on a removable cartridge and Davong Systems Inc. had the Mac Disk system from 5MB to 32MB. Just because both were advertised did not mean they were shipping first. This may be a moot point. These hard drives could be used by the original Macintosh 128K model.

The Davong Mac Disk system appeared to be flawed by the original Macintosh MFS disk format and included a special version of the Finder to recognize the increased number of stored files. This version of the Finder supported larger disks than the Mac’s floppy disk 400K size that made using the hard drive usable. The Mac Disk hooked to Macintosh by the Modem or Printer ports. This hard drive retailed for $2,395 for a 10MB hard disk. Information on Mac Disk from books.google.com site in an InfoWorld magazine review from November 5, 1984.

Tecmar had their Mac Drive system it had one flaw that the 5MB removable cartridge would not be able to be ejected due to the 128K of RAM in the original Macintosh could not hold all of the disk file names in the Finder at that time. The special version of the Finder was included to support disks larger than the Mac’s floppy disk 400K size. This was reported the least problematic hard drive on the market in November 5, 1984. The Mac Drive hooked to only the Modem port. This hard drive retailed for $1,995. Information on Mac Drive from books.google.com site in an InforWorld magazine review from November 5, 1984.

Apple introduced their Macintosh hard drive HD20 in 1985 and it improved on it’s predecessors a bit by using the floppy port instead of the serial port. By using the HD20 INIT on any system folder (Macintosh 512K model) you would use the whole hard drive space without any problems while ejecting. As the HD20 was based on the newer HFS disk format (over the original MFS format) more and more file could be stored easily. The Macintosh 512Ke and later models included support for the HFS format in the System ROM on the logic board. http://www.mac512.com/macwebpages/hd20.htm

The original Macintosh 128K and the Macintosh 512K models had the original 400K 3.5″ disc drive. The Macintosh 512Ke and later models came with a double sided double density 800K 3.5″ disc drive.

From using the HD20 (I own 2 of them) hard drive, it was much faster and easier to use the Macintosh than just 1 or 2 floppy drives. Once the HFS format was out hard drives became a regular computing device without any problems due to the simple file structure of the MFS discs. MFS was really geared for a 400K floppy disc. Hard drive pioneers to make it work with the original Macintosh 128K model should be thanked to see what could be done. The Macintosh platform needed to grow up a bit before everything worked out.

Eventually the hard drive SCSI connector won out and became the de facto standard for a while. That is another tale.

Get it while you can for free . The first season of the ABC show Pan Am from iTunes. I like that the HD version of the show is available in addition to the SD version. The HD version is in 720p which should work on all of your iOS devices like iPhone, iPad and even the Apple TV. All 9 episodes are available.

My other half did not want to at first watch Pan Am until he found out that Christina Ricci was in the show. Since then he has been a Pan Am expert! On the ABC web site there is a test to see how well you know the character Christina plays. Not surprisingly he scored 100%.

If you want a fun show with mystery and set in the 1960′s; Pan Am is your best bet today.

So head over to iTunes and download one of the best TV shows from the fall of 2011. It will make a great Christmas present to yourself and your family.

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/pan-am-season-1/id457951754

Disclaimer – I don’t know how long it will be free from iTunes but on 12/19/2011 the show was free

Tags: csparks | iPadLife201112

Remember way back in 1987 if you had a file you needed to compress, transmit to a friend over a 300 baud modem, or wanted to just save space on your floppy diskette. Many times you would of used a file compression program like Stuffit. This product has stood the test of time starting out as shareware and ending up as a paid product owned by successful companies like Aladdin and Smith Micro.

Enter in 2011 and Stuffit has transformed itself into a cross-platform Internet  file compression application. Running on Windows and Macintosh you can take a file, save space, or post it on a personal cloud storage with an email link.

Smith Micro is giving away a digital download of Stuffit Deluxe 15 until December 18th at http://store.smithmicro.com/productDetails.aspx?id=18487

Stuffit was created buy Raymond Lau in 1987 as a better file compression utility. Prior to Stuffit Mac users used Packit. Stuffit would compress the resource fork and data fork portions of the files better than any other product at that time. Stuffit was released as shareware which helped it gain broad appeal as users could test it out before buying the product. I have been using Stuffit since the late 1980′s and it has seen it’s fair share of competition over the years. Since Stuffit was being enhanced to handle Windows ZIP and Unix compression formats Stuffit is as useful today as it was 20 years ago.

Get the free version of Stuffit Deluxe while you still can.

It is official. HP has made WebOS open source instead of just letting the platform die. This gives the WebOS faithful new life to keep the OS around longer than originally expected after HP was thinking about just abandoning it. We already know there are WebOS developers making good tablet apps and providing OS extensions. Actually this is pretty good news.

Loosing this sophisticated tablet OS would be a bad thing. WebOS is light years ahead of Android OS and it reminds me a little bit of iOS. Both are pleasant to look at and use. Both are easy to use. No confusing weird interfaces between one distribution to another like Android.

What we will have to see is other companies will choose to support WebOS instead of Android OS now that they will have a choice. Will people flock over low prices tablets running WebOS?

Wait, that answer is yes. 1 million WebOS tablets are out there in the market. For $99 for 16GB to $150 for 32GB models. Maybe this was not a bad thing for HP’s fire sale after all.

Take my advice. If you want the best tablet experience – get an iPad. If you want a pleasant tablet experience – get a WebOS tablet. You now have two real tablet choices America, iOS or WebOS. Both are here to stay.

Source: http://blog.laptopmag.com/hp-takes-webos-open-source

Tags: iPadLife201112

Best Buy has provided an online preview sales flyer. If you were wanting a shiny new Apple products, now may be the time for you to think of waiting outside of Best Buy this Friday and score some sweet discounts.

In short you can score:

• iPad 2 16GB Wifi Save $45
• $100 iTunes Gift Card for $80
• $120 off a Mac Book Pro or iMac (certain models, check ad for which)
• AppleTV Save $10
• iPhone 4 8GB for $99with activation (2 year)
• iPhone 3GS 8GB is Free with activation (2 year)
• iPod Touch 32GB Save $5
• On Page 16 you can save $5 off an 8GB iPod Nano and receive a $15 Best Buy Gift Card

Source: http://bestbuy.shoplocal.com/bestbuy/default.aspx?action=entryflash&promotioncode=112411MWSNKPK&sneakpeek=y

You were excited to use iTunes Match when it was released earlier this week. You updated your iPhone or iPad with iOS 5.0.1 and waiting for iTunes to sync your music. Then all of a sudden your music videos are removed your device (with warning). What? When iTunes Match goes through your music, music videos is an element that it matches and anything it does not understand it marks as “Not Eligible” and moves on. This also means any music videos iTunes Matched will be removed from your iPad or iPhone and marked as an available download from iCloud.

Ok, I will go to iTunes and click on my device’s Music Tab. You find out that you can no longer manage the music videos manually. iTunes Match took that information and loaded what it matched to iCloud and the rest are forgotten about.

The easiest way to get around this is to mark the Music Video as a Movie. Click on each music video and click on “Get Info”. From there navigate to the Options tab and change the Media Kind to Movie. Since iPad has a separate Videos app you will be able to easily play back the music video under the Movies section. You could change the type to TV Show or Podcast, I don’t recommend this as it is not as easy to find.

You have two options now: keep managing your music videos/movies manually or just access the ones in iCloud, or leave the matched ones in iCloud plus re-downloading and manually manage the ones that are matched. The only way you save space now is by not having those videos on your device. You will need to manually download the matched videos if you want to play them back. This is the time consuming part, you have to download each individually. By going to the Music app you can speed this process up by queuing up multiple downloads at one time.

This is something Apple needs to think about once they receive feedback, because if you want to change that matched video to a movie and sync through your iTunes you can’t. Lessons learned and Apple will adjust like they always do based on customer feedback.

Tags: iPadLife201110