While Apple has many famous product lines, there is one that hasn’t received as much attention. Apple’s device used to bring iTunes content to your HDTV has gone through significant changes from the first generation model to second generation. The second generation relied completely on streaming video in 720p HD and lacked the bulky, expensive hard drive the first version relied on. It also brought Internet streaming services like Netflix and YouTube. The final major feature the second generation Apple TV brought to the world was AirPlay which allows one to play videos from an iOS device on their big screen TV. Aside from The new iPad, Apple also launched the third generation Apple TV on March 16. This new Apple TV finally brings us streaming video in 1080p HD and an all new user interface. Does the Apple TV deliver as a great set top box or is this tiny black box still a hobby product for Apple enthusiasts?
For anyone hoping to jailbreak their iDevice, I suggest you update to 5.0.1 now. When 5.1 comes out, rumors stating it will be out around March 9th, you will have to update straight to 5.1.
Another cool free Cydia Tweak, that allows you to change the words iPod or ATnT or whatever carrier you have into a cool logo.
Check out the demo at : Zeppelin Demo
Another cool cydia tweak, ColoredKnob, that allows you to change the color of your slider, its is very simple to use and allows you to add a extra detail onto your iDevice. Download it for free from Cydia!
Just introducing one cool winterboard theme:
Called Colores and it’s free, it adds a interesting cartoon style to your iDevice.
Look at the quick video to see a peek of Colores, then go to Cydia and download it for yourself!
Released by the Chronic Dev Team just yesterday, was Absinthe that will allow anyone with an A5 device to finally jailbreak it! The program is available for both windows and mac, and the program is quite simple to use.
The video tutorial:
Steps:
Step 1: Open Absinthe and plug in your device.
Step 1.5: Disable your password, if you have one.
Step 2: Click the “Jailbreak” button on Absinthe.
Step 3: Allow it to finish loading, and do not touch your iDevice at any time during this process.
Step 4: The Absinthe app should be installed on your iDevice. Open the app. (If you get a database error keep closing and reopening it, its because so many others may be jailbreaking too)
Step 5: After the app loads properly, your device should restart and when it boots up it will be jailbroken!
Apple had a few big announcements in the Big Apple today. They announced an ambitious plan to change education. This includes education in the classroom and education outside the classroom as well.
The first thing Apple looks to change are textbooks. Textbooks are an old 20th century idea. Students carry around tons of heavy books with them every day. These books are expensive and sometimes come in terrible conditions if used. Textbooks are also not engaging, interactive, or stay up to date. To remedy this, Apple has announced iBooks 2 for the iPad. iBooks 2 will have a specific section for textbooks. These textbooks contain more than just text. Videos, 3D models, slideshows, and more will play a critical part in helping students learn the material. Students can easily highlight important text and take notes right within the textbook. These textbooks are also searchable. If a teacher says “jump to page 34″, this is now as simple as typing the number 34 in a search bar. The books will also contain searchable indexes and glossaries. The books also stay up to date via updates and students keep them forever. Apple is starting with high school textbooks and has gotten support from around 90% of the high school textbook industry. Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will have many of their textbooks available today with more in the future. Unlike their not so interactive hardcover counterparts, textbooks on iBooks 2 will be available for $15 or less. Aside from high school textbooks, DK Publishing is releasing some textbooks today for younger children and Harvard professor E.O. Wilson is releasing his new textbook Life On Earth exclusively on iBooks 2. The first two chapters of Life On Earth are available today for free with more chapters coming for a small fee. iBooks 2 is available now on the App Store. Click here to download it. If you have iBooks installed on your iPad, just check for updates and it should be there.
Sure these textbooks may look great but what if they were incredibly easy to create too? Apple has just announced the iBooks Author app for the Mac. This app allows anyone to create a great book with the same ease of use as Apple’s iWork apps. Everything and anything from photo’s, 3D models, videos, and more can just be dragged and dropped. The app can create any type of book but Apple is hoping that this is an easy solution to get great textbooks from people who are just not good with computers. The iBooks author app is available now on the Mac App Store. Give it a spin by clicking here.
The final app Apple talked about today is their new iTunes U app. The app, which just launched today for all iOS devices, will allow students to take full online courses from the comfort of their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. It’s not just lectures anymore. Students can also have full access to a course syllabus, presentations, and all other course documents. It operates very similarly to a management program such as Blackboard. Students can take notes within the app as well and can purchase course materials straight from the app. If a teachers sends students a message, it will come up as a push notification. The iTunes U app makes taking online courses simpler and easier than ever (until you start counting the actual course work). And now for the first time, there will be iTunes U courses available for K-12 students. Teachers teaching these grades can create online courses for not just their students, but the world. The iTunes U app is available now. Grab it here.
Apple seems to have brought the public education system into the 21st century and is making it easier for anyone to take online courses. The one problem I see is whether or not students and whole schools can even afford iPads for every student. This may take a few years to get off the ground but when it does, students will be learning more and hopefully since students are actually using technology in the classroom, the willingness to learn will increase as well. The future for Apple and education looks brighter than ever before.
With the release of Windows 8 coming in the next few months, tablet manufacturers are readying their own Windows 8 tablets to compete in the marketplace. The tablet PC company Kupa has its users already enjoying Windows 7 while they wait to upgrade to Windows 8. Kupa’s X11 tablet has been on the marketplace for some time already. It currently runs Windows 7 Professional, has enough power to smoothly play 1080p HD video with its Intel 1.5 GHz processor, and contains two USB ports and one mini HDMI port. All this on a tablet with a 10 hour battery life and a screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768.
While 3D shutter glasses provide the only way to experience full 1080p HD 3D in the market, there is a huge problem between the manufacturers of shutter glasses. If you buy a 3D TV which uses shutter glasses, you usually are stuck buying glasses specific to the brand of your TV. If you have a Samsung TV and want to watch something on your friend’s Panasonic TV, you would need a different pair of glasses. Thankfully, the major players in the industry realized that this is not ok. During the Summer of 2011, Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and XPAND announced a collaboration called the Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative. The goal of this collaboration was to create a standard for 3D shutter glasses so that eventually every pair would work with every TV. The glasses you see above are the XPAND YOUniversal 3D shutter glasses. They are the result of this collaboration and thanks to XPAND, I got to try out a pair.
One thing that was expected this year at CES was a natural interface for televisions. A natural interface simply means a way of control that is natural to everyone. Using the body and voice are of course the most natural inputs we have. Samsung showed off Smart Interaction which will make its debut later this year on two of Samsung’s LED TVs and one plasma TV as well. Smart Interaction allows a person to interact with Samsung’s TVs through gesture, voice control, and facial recognition. This technology may seem familiar for those who own Kinect for Xbox 360, but this is the first time is it being natively added to a TV set. The video above explains and shows off the concept much better than I can. LG also showed a TV at CES with similar functions. Comment below if you think this natural way of control is the way of the future or if you have spotted me in the video (I’m in it for maybe two seconds). And of course if you have any questions, feel free to also comment below and I will personally answer you (same goes for all our posts).
While Apple has many famous product lines, there is one that hasn’t received as much attention. Apple’s device used to bring iTunes content to your HDTV has gone through significant changes from the first generation model to second generation. The second generation relied completely on streaming video in 720p HD and lacked the bulky, expensive hard drive the first version relied on. It also brought Internet streaming services like Netflix and YouTube. The final major feature the second generation Apple TV brought to the world was AirPlay which allows one to play videos from an iOS device on their big screen TV. Aside from The new iPad, Apple also launched the third generation Apple TV on March 16. This new Apple TV finally brings us streaming video in 1080p HD and an all new user interface. Does the Apple TV deliver as a great set top box or is this tiny black box still a hobby product for Apple enthusiasts?
