Tag: ipad

Apple Rebrands 4G iPad As “iPad WiFi + Cellular”

You may recall that back in March, not long after the new iPad hit stores around the world, Apple found themselves in a spot of trouble in companies like Australia, where their branding of the iPad as a 4G-capable device was seen as false advertising. You see, one of Australia’s mobile carriers does have a 4G LTE network, but the new iPad happens not to be compatible with it, a fact that Apple wasn’t troubling itself to make terribly clear to Australian consumers.

Apple initially began issuing refunds to Australian consumers who felt they’d been misled. At the same time they entered talks with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about rebranding the iPad. Despite Apple taking some steps to make the incompatibility more clear, Apple declined to stop calling it the “iPad 4G” in Australia and other countries with incompatible 4G networks, and the talks broke down.

Now, Apple has officially rebranded the iPad in its online stores. Here’s a screenshot of the iPad selection screen from Apple’s online store in Australia:

But that’s not all. Apple didn’t only make the change in countries where the 4G branding had gotten them in trouble – e.g., Australia, Britain, and Sweden. In fact, they appear to have made the change virtually everywhere. Here in the U.S., not only was the 4G branding not a problem, it was one of the main selling points. All the same, check out the same selection screen from the U.S. Apple store:

So it looks like Apple has decided to be a little extra careful with the new iPad’s branding. It makes sense, really. For one thing, the iPad is only compatible with 4G LTE networks in the U.S. and Canada. For another thing, even those networks do not cover the entire country. That means that a huge portion of those who buy the new iPad, even in the U.S. and Canada, are not going to be able to make use of its 4G capabilities. They will have to just keep settling for their local carriers’ 3G networks. That being the case, it doesn’t necessarily make sense to brand the iPad based on its compatibility with a network the majority of its owners will not be able to use.

May 14, 2012
Tablets Replace the Idiot Box as Electronic Babysitter [Infographic]

Do you remember all the derogatory names people had for the television when you were growing up? Some of my favorites were the boob tube, idiot box (image courtesy of Boysandgirls.ie), electronic fireplace, and electronic babysitter. This new Infographic from from Schools.com raises our awareness about a new babysitter in town.

According to the graphic, seven out of ten children in tablet-owning homes have used tablets, and more than 20% of parents admit to giving children smartphones, iPods, or an iPad to keep them occupied while they run errands. They also admit to downloading apps that are specifically for their children.

So what are these kids using these devices for? All kinds of things including games, movies, networking with friends–essentially the same stuff adults use them for. The good news is that there are certain benefits that go along with using these devices at an early age. In fact, One study found that kindergartners who used an iPad scored better on tests than those who did not. Very interesting.

So, I don’t know if it’s quite like the old idiot box, but it does make a lot of sense. Parents are always looking for new ways to keep their children entertained as they get on with the necessary tasks of the day. If they can make it an educational experience, why not use our smartphones or tablets? It’s better than chasing them down the aisles of the grocery store.

May 11, 2012
USPS Will Not Deliver iPads, Other Electronics Overseas After May 16th

New regulations set to take effect on May 16th mean that the United States Postal Service will stop shipping iPads, Kindles, and any other devices that runs on Lithium batteries overseas, due to the risks those batteries pose to the aircraft the USPS uses to transport overseas shipments.

Over the past few years there have been several reports of planes owned by shipping companies like UPS crashing when shipments of lithium batteries caught fire in the planes’ holds. Inside most forms of lithium battery is a pressurized canister holding a flammable liquid containing in which the lithium is suspended. During the pressure changes associated with air travel, sometimes these batteries can overheat and burst, causing a fire. In one of the most famous instances, a UPS 747 was en route from Dubai to Cologne, Germany with a large shipment of lithium batteries. During the flight the batteries caught fire. Despite efforts to turn around and return to Dubai, the plane ultimately crashed, killing both the pilot and co-pilot.

In an effort to avoid such mishaps in the future, the USPS will stop accepting devices with lithium and lithium ion batteries for international shipment beginning next week. You can read the USPS’s new regulation’s here.

The USPS provided Fast Company with a graphic showing some of the items that are can no longer be shipped. It’s a pretty long list, including power tools, video cameras, mobile phones, computers, and even electric shavers.

Unfortunately, this means that shipments of such devices to, for example, soldiers stationed overseas, can no longer be handled by the USPS. Such shipments will now have to go through a private shipping service like UPS, FedEx, or DHL, all of which are considerably more expensive than the USPS.

May 11, 2012
iPad Mini Coming In October For $200-250

Rumors about the iPad Mini have been all over the map. Speculation abounds about how big it will be, when it will launch, and even whether it exists at all. While a seemingly reliable report early last month seemed to confirm that a 7.85-inch iPad Mini does exist, there were doubts as to whether it would ever actually see a release. Rumors that try to pin down a release date have been pretty erratic, as well. Some keep it to the third quarter in general, while a recent report said it would be coming in August.

Well, a report from iMore today claims to put all those rumors to rest (though, of course, it actually just adds fuel to the fire). Citing a source that “has proven reliable in the past,” iMore says that the iPad Mini will effectively be a shrunken version of the iPad 2, but with the same pixel dimensions as the new iPad. With that display, the iPad Mini will have the same pixel density as the iPhone 4S’s retina display, putting it somewhere between the iPhone 4S and the new iPad in terms of resolution.

Perhaps most shockingly, iMore’s sore claims that the iPad Mini will start in the $200-250 range, which is $50-100 lower than most estimates. The source claims that Apple will keep costs down primarily by offering less storage capacity – the $200 model will only have 8GB of onboard storage.

Finally, the source claims that the iPad Mini will be coming in October of this year. Coincidentally (or maybe not?) that is the likely timeframe for the release of the next iPhone. It seems unlikely that Apple would unveil a major new product alongside the newest iPhone, though. So if the October date is correct, then it may lend credence to recent reports that the next iPhone will actually be arriving a little earlier.

What do you think? Will Apple make a 7- or 7.85-inch iPad Mini? Would you buy one if they did? Let us know in the comments.

May 10, 2012
iOS 5.1 Jailbreak Coming Sooner Than Expected?

Just yesterday we brought you news that the latest update to the jailbreak took redsn0w, which should be coming soon, would allow users to roll back to an older version of iOS. This was good news, because it meant that those who had upgraded to iOS 5.1 but wanted to jailbreak their devices could downgrade to a jailbroken iOS, rather than waiting for the jailbreak of iOS 5.1 to be ready.

Now, though, it looks like the need for that new version of redsn0w might not be as pressing as originally thought. Jailbreak developer pod2g tweeted this afternoon that he had an untethered jailbreak of iOS 5.1 running on his new iPad. After a little more work, he plans to test his method on the recently-released iOS 5.1.1. With luck, the exploits used to jailbreak iOS 5.1 will work just as well on the newer version. Check out pod2g’s tweet below:

@pod2g
pod2gHey. iPad 3,1 running iOS 5.1 untethered. Next on the list: stabilizing the payload, then trying 5.1.1. 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhone · Reply · Retweet · Favorite · powered by @socialditto

This follows another tweet last week wherein pod2g posted that he’d gotten an untethered jailbreak of iOS 5.1 running on his iPhone 4. According to another tweet posted just a few minutes ago, the fact that his jailbreak runs on the iPhone 4 and the new iPad means that it will run on any iOS device. Unfortunately, though, his jailbreak may not work on the third-generation Apple TV

@pod2g
pod2gIf it works on iPad 3 and iPhone 4, I can say it’ll work on any device. The ATV3 may be out tho… :/ 11 minutes ago via Twitter for Mac · Reply · Retweet · Favorite · powered by @socialditto

Now, the fact that pod2g has an working jailbreak doesn’t mean that you should go upgrade your iOS version just yet. For one thing, there’s still the process of confirming that the jailbreak works on iOS 5.1.1. Fortunately, though, there’s a good chance it will, since i0n1c’s unreleased jailbreak did.

Once it’s confirmed that the jailbreak works, there’s still the process of creating a public tool (like redsn0w or Absinthe). In other words, it’s likely to take a little while longer. That means that we still have to be patient. Fortunately, though, it seems that we won’t have to be quite as patient as it looked like we might.

Are you looking forward to upgrading to iOS 5.1? Let us know what you think in the comments.

May 10, 2012
Turn Your iPad into an Etch-A-Sketch

If you have ever wanted to turn a $600 piece of hardware into a $15 toy, the Kickstart ‘Etcher’ is for you. I don’t mean to knock the start-up before it gets off the ground, but that is essentially what you are doing.

However, there are some great additions to buying this version of the classic children’s toy, like the ability to save your drawings and post them on Facebook or Flickr. And the nostalgia factor will appeal to a lot of people.

At first glance of the Etcher on Kickstarter, you will notice a striking number of positive reviews from various tech publications, so it must be the real deal as far as duplicating the feel of the original. Actual physical knobs come out of the cover’s suface, emulating the real thing. It has the classic red finish with the original logos across the top. Everything about it looks like the original; it even erases the screen when you shake it.

The only drawback I can see is the price. On Kickstarter, they are asking for a pledge of $45 dollars to get the first production copy of the device. They even say that it is at a “special price”. For $15 you can by an actual etch-a-sketch on Amazon, so why not just get the real thing.

You can’t save it, but why do you even want to. Etch-A-Scetch drawings are terrible unless you are an actual Etch-A-Sketch artist, and there are plenty of drawing apps out there that can produce way better images. It really does look like fun, but after the nostalgia wears off, you are just left with $45 iPad cover that’s really hard to draw on.

An upside for developers, though, is that they are going to publish an open source SDK so you can make you own games that utilize the Etchers hardware. It would be interesting to see if someone could come up with a unique game. They cannot open source the hardware though, their contact with Apple keeps that a secret.

[h/t: CNet]

May 10, 2012
Proview Rejected Apple’s $16M Offer, Wanted $400M

Yesterday we brought you news that a U.S. District Court judge had rejected Proview’s attempt to bring its trademark infringement battle with Apple to American shores. Now it appears that Apple has made attempts to settle the case and been rejected by Proview.

According to Chinese web site Sina (Google Translation), Apple offered China 100 million yuan ($16 million) to settle the suit, which is currently preventing Apple from selling the iPad in China’s enormous mobile device market. Proview, however, rejected the offer, insisting that Apple pay out $400 million.

Upon further investigation, Sina discovered that $400 million happens to be the amount Proview needs to appease the creditors – consisting mainly of 8 Chinese banks – nipping at the company’s heels. According to The Next Web, proview’s debts actually total $8.68 million, and the company is facing increasing pressure from creditors that have begun taking steps to reclaim their money.

Apple purchased the rights to the iPad trademark through a shell company several years ago. Proview subsequently denied that Apple had any right to the name and sued Apple, seeking to block import of the iPad in China. Proview has accused Apple of acquiring the trademark rights deceptively, while Apple has argued that Proview is trying to get more money out of trademark rights that it has already sold fair and square. If Sina’s report is correct, it seems that Apple might have a point.

May 10, 2012
Apple Improving Foxconn Plants

Apple Inc. has teamed up with Foxconn, the Chinese supplier of iPhone and iPad devices, to improve the labor conditions in its manufacturing facilities. Both companies are contributing funds, though its not clear if they are splitting the bill 50/50. Foxconn plants, known for various questionable practices including employing underage workers, and underpaying and likewise overcharging workers to live in on-site dorms, prompting strikes and mass-suicidal behavior.

Foxconn Leader Terry Gou states, “We’ve discovered that this (improving factory conditions) is not a cost. It is a competitive strength – I believe Apple sees this as a competitive strength along with us, and so we will split the initial costs.” The news comes not too long after a reported salary bump of 16-15% for Chinese workers. Junior-level laborers still make next to nothing, at roughly $3,500 per year, but the raises were significant comparatively, and likely a significant PR push. Below is a video describing a Chinese Foxconn plant:

Surely everything was ship-shape for the day of filming, and doesn’t appear to be much different from what goes on in the U.S., except for the discrepancy in pay, where forced overtime can also be the norm. Alas, forced overtime here might not constitue forced overtime in China, where some workers that the Foxconn plants need it just to get by in the dorms. It’s been said that plant workers sometimes work over 60 hours a week, and sometimes for over 11 days in a row.

Still, in a quite sobering slice of real life, there is a legitimate chance that Apple will actually be contributing to the installation of better suicide nets to catch the Foxconn employees who jump, after too many iPad assemblies for next to nothing.

May 10, 2012
Miami Zoo Orangatans Use iPads to Communicate

I’m not sure if this is testament to the brainpower of our evolutionary cousins or a slam against iPad users, but it seems they have taught Orangutans at the Miami Zoo to use iPads.

The Miami Jungle Island park is teaching six Orangatans to communicate, play games, and watch videos using iPads. The programs director, Linda Jacobs, thinks the iPads will help bridge the communication gap between humans and primates. They are seen in this report from CBS Tampa using drawing apps, and watching videos of themselves and other orangutans, but Jacobs says they love to play any game designed for children.

The iPad is part of the enrichment program at the zoo, which aims to keep the animals engaged and stimulated mentally and physically. Jacobs said in an extended interview with CBS Tampa that the implementation of iPads was based on a suggestion from someone who had previous used it with dolphins.

The communication software being used was originally designed for people with autism, but modified to be extended to orangatans.

So far the program has been beneficial in helping the Orangatans express their wants or needs to park caretakers. They can even identify body parts making it easier for veterinarians to give treatment. It also helps humans in that the orangutans are now able to communicate with people not familiar with their sign language.

Jacobs wants to have screens built into the animals cages, with corresponding screens outside in the observation area, allowing zoo patrons to interact and communicate with them in the software that they are familiar with. She believes this and the various other software will help keep the orangutans active and engaged. They are highly intelligent creatures and can easily get bored and depressed if not stimulated mentally.

Mirroring human society, the iPad is popular among the children and teenagers of the clan, but the elders show little to no interest.

“Our young ones pick up on it. They understand it. It’s like, ‘Oh I get this,’” Jacobs said to CBS Tampa. “Our two older ones, they just are not interested. I think they just figure, ‘I’ve gotten along just fine in this world without this communication-skill here and the iPad, and I don’t need a computer.”

May 10, 2012
E-Commerce Spending Up 17%

Internet marketing research company comScore released its first quarter, 2012 U.S. internet retail sales estimates today, recording a 17% sales increase over last year, totaling roughly $44.3 billion. The latest numbers mark the tenth instance where quarter-over-quarter sales have risen.

comScore cites that in Q1, 2012, digital content and subscriptions, computer software, consumer electronics, jewelry and watches and event tickets were the most popular online product purchases. Also, 48.8% of e-commerce transactions included free shipping, the highest ever outside of a holiday shopping season. During the Q1 period, 38% of tablet users bought something online, with clothing being the most popular items. While its been reported that many retailers lack online storefronts optimized for shopping via a tablet device, U.S. consumers have come to expect a sort of integrated shopping experience, spanning smartphones, tablets, desktops and physical, brick-and-mortar retail storefronts. Online retail for tablet optimization is advancing, and a higher percentage of tablet-based purchases should be expected.

comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni states, “The first quarter of this year was especially strong for retail e-commerce as we returned to year-over-year growth rates in the high teens, numbers we haven’t seen since 2007 – While the economic recovery continues to be painfully slow, the channel shift to e-commerce appears to be accelerating. This presents opportunities but also challenges for brick-and-mortar retailers if they can’t hold onto their offline market share in the digital world.”

An undesired effect of a sort of digital window shopping are instances of consumers using brick-and-mortar showrooms to get a hands-on look at items they’d shopped for online. This practice is one of the reasons why Best Buy has been closing stores. Customers have begun plainly using big box locations as a place to test drive products they plan to buy online anyway, for usually cheaper.

May 9, 2012
Redsn0w Jailbreak Tool To Support Downgrading iOS

When iOS 5.1 released last month, it didn’t really have a lot in terms of new features. Apart from a new (and, to be fair, much improved) camera shortcut and a few other little odds and ends, iOS 5.1 didn’t have a lot to offer those who weren’t rushing out to get the new iPad.

If you’re a member of the jailbreak community, though, the update to iOS 5.1 did bring with it two separate but related headaches. First, with iOS 5.1 Apple fixed all the exploits that allowed iOS 5.0.1 to be jailbroken. The Dev Team – and pod2g in particular – were forced to start over on the new update, just a few short months after finally cracking the previous version. Then, to add insult to injury, Apple made it extremely difficult to downgrade to an older version of iOS. That meant that those upgraded their device accidentally (or because they bought an April Fools gag) were stuck waiting for the iOS 5.1 jailbreak, rather than downgrading back to iOS 5.0.1 and getting their jailbreak back.

Well, if you’re one of those people, it looks like you may be in luck. According to iPhone hacker MuscleNerd, the next version of the redsn0w jailbreak tool will offer the ability to downgrade to older, jailbroken versions of iOS, provided you have access to the SHSH blobs. It even works for devices running on the newer A5 and A5X processors (the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and new iPad), which are proving resistant to jailbreak efforts.

Check out MuscleNerd’s tweet on the new redsn0w update below, along with the pic that he included:

@MuscleNerd
MuscleNerdUpcoming redsn0w supports restoring, including iPad2/3 and 4S downgrades (with blobs) http://t.co/XRxSTHr4 ..also stitches on the fly 🙂 16 hours ago via web · Reply · Retweet · Favorite · powered by @socialditto

Unfortunately, MuscleNerd declines to say when the new version of redsn0w will be available, so if you’re one of the unlucky few who accidentally updated to a non-jailbroken version of iOS, you’ve still got a bit of a wait left before you can downgrade and re-jailbreak.

Meanwhile, the work on the iOS 5.1(.1) continues. Last week pod2g tweeted that he had gotten an untethered jailbreak working on his iPhone 4. Unfortunately that still leaves the more difficult A5 and A5X devices left to jailbreak, but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. Just don’t bug him with questions.

May 9, 2012
Proview iPad Suit Tossed By U.S. Judge

By now you’ve probably heard about the ongoing legal battle in China over the iPad name. If not, here’s a quick rundown: it seems that Proview, a Chinese company specializing in CRT and LCD monitors, owned the trademark for the name “iPad.” While Apple claimed to have bought the worldwide rights to the name, Proview denied this and, after negotiations failed, sued to block imports and exports of the iPad in China.

A lower court ruled that the iPad should be pulled from Chinese stores, but that ruling was reversed just a few days later. Proview, however, apparently got tired of waiting for the case to work its way through the Chinese court system. In February they filed a suit in U.S. District Court in California. In this suit, Proview claimed that they did not realize they were selling the rights to the trademark to a rival computer company, but to an IP developer.

Now, though, it seems that Proview has hit a brick wall in its U.S. case. According to Reuters, the presiding judge in the U.S. suit dismissed the complaint on the grounds that Apple and Proview had agreed to work out their differences in Hong Kong.

Proview accuses Apple of acquiring the trademark rights deceptively, and says that Apple’s agreement was with a single division of the company, rather than Proview as a whole. Apple, meanwhile, argues that Proview is simply trying to squeeze more money out of a trademark that it has already sold.

May 9, 2012
iPhone 5 Rumor: iPhone Coming In September, iPad Mini In August

Pegatron, one of the Apple’s major manufacturing partners, has begun receiving orders for the next round of Apple products, according to a recent report. Pegatron is currently in the process of allocating resources to prepare to fill the orders.

DigiTimes, citing “Taiwan-based supply chain makers,” is reporting this morning that Pegatron has received orders for the new iPhone and another model of 10-inch iPad. They claim that the iPhone is slated for a September launch, and this mystery iPad for a launch in the fourth quarter.

In addition to the new iPhone and iPad, the report also claims that Foxconn is gearing up to produce a 7-inch iPad that will be releasing in August. This “iPad Mini” has been the subject of rumors for years, though recently it has begun to look as though Apple really is thinking of releasing it.

While most rumors have put the release of the new iPhone (as it will almost certainly be called) in October, matching the release of the iPhone 4S, which launched in October 2011, a September launch is not beyond the realm of possibility. If Apple wants to move back towards the summer release schedule they followed for the first four iPhones, inching it backwards a little each year would be the way to do it.

As to this mysterious second iPad, it’s highly unlikely that Apple would launch another full-sized iPad model in the third quarter, less than six months (at the most) before the launch of the 4th generation iPad. It’s possible, however, that this is the 4th generation iPad, and that DigiTimes sources are wrong about the launch date. The fourth quarter is when production on a new iPad usually starts to ramp up, and it’s possible that Pegatron is already preparing for that. On the other hand, it’s possible that DigiTimes is just wrong. That happens with enough regularity that it’s as likely as explanation as any.

Could Apple be preparing another 10-inch iPad for the fourth quarter? What about an iPad Mini just five months after the launch of the new iPad? Let us know what you think in the comments.

May 9, 2012
AT&T To Offer Family Data Plan Soon

Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T mobility, has revealed that his company will soon be offering shared family data plans. These plans will allow users to pay for a single data plan that covers multiple devices – smartphones and tablets, namely. Under the current system a family with, say, two iPhones and a 4G iPad have to pay separate data plan fees for each device. With shared data plans, customers would pay for a single data plan that would cover all the family’s devices.

In an interview with CNet at the CTIA conference in New Orleans yesterday, de la Vega said that he was “very comfortable with the plan that will be offered to our customers.” He did not give any details about the plan other than that. Pricing, data caps, and the like are still unknown. He also declined to say when AT&T would be rolling out the new plans.

De la Vega’s statements make AT&T the second major carrier to promise that shared data plans would be coming soon. During Verizon’s quarterly earnings call last month the company revealed, among other things, that family data plans would be coming in mid-summer. Depending on pricing, such plans have the potential to be extremely popular, especially among families that own 3G or 4G tablets like the iPad.

While T-Mobile has said they do not intend to offer a family data plan, Sprint already offers their Everything Data Family plan, which includes unlimited data for all devices on the account and starts at $129 (for 2 lines and 1500 minutes).

What do you think? Would you make the switch to a family data plan? Let us know in the comments.

May 8, 2012
New iPad Launching In 30 Countries On May 11-12

Apple’s “resolutionary” new iPad is preparing to make its way into an additional 30 countries at the end of this week, according to a recent report. The new markets should round out the iPad’s availability in Latin America and Asia, as well as adding several Middle Eastern countries.

The first round of new releases will come on Friday, May 11, when the new iPad hits 23 countries. Most of these are in Latin American and the Caribbean, with a few in Africa and Asia. Here’s the full list: Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Morocco, Peru, Taiwan, Tunisia, Vietnam. On Saturday, May 12, the new iPad will be hitting 7 Middle Eastern countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.

Interestingly, Apple has been fairly quiet about this latest round of releases. They did not issue any sort of statement explaining the new releases. Instead, the releases were discovered by MacRumors.

The iPad launched on March 16th in the U.S. and nine other countries, the largest single-day launch in Apple’s history. A week later it hit 25 additional countries, mostly in Europe. A month after the US launch, the new iPad arrived in an additional 12 countries. After that, Apple appears to have stopped announcing the iPad’s arrival in new countries. Since then it has launched in several more nations including, as MacRumors points out, Turkey last weekend.

With the launches on Friday and Saturday, the new iPad will be available in nearly 100 countries on every continent except Antarctica.

May 8, 2012
iOS Trouncing Android In Gaming Revenue

Depending on what crowd you run in, calling a smartphone or tablet a “gaming” device will get you widely varied reactions. Tell a group of hardcore gamers that you use your iPhone for “gaming,” and you’re likely to get flat stares if you’re very lucky, derision and mockery if you’re not. If, on the other hand, you said it to executives at Nintendo, you might get a different reaction. The rise of gaming on devices like the iPhone has put a serious dent in sales of Nintendo’s 3DS.

But whether gamers and console makers like it or not, smartphone and tablet gaming is an extremely lucrative market. Some of the most popular apps in the history of the iOS App Store have been games. Of the top grossing apps in the iOS App Store, 21 are games. Of the top 25 grossing Android Apps on Google Play, 24 are games. Smartphone and tablet games are worth staggering amounts of money.

But that raises a question: which platform is more lucrative. That is, who pays more for their games: iPhone users, or Android users? A new study by Newzoo which appeared today in Forbes answers that very question. It turns out that iOS gamers spend more than five times as much on their games as Android gamers. The iOS platform with its combined 30.7 million mobile gamers across three devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) took in 84% of the revenues generated by mobile gaming in March.

Interestingly, the vast majority of the mobile gaming revenue does not come from the purchase of the games themselves. For both platforms, in-app purchases accounted for 91% – yes, ninety-one percent – of gaming revenues (not counting mobile ads). The study found that those patterns tend to hold – though with rather less staggering majorities – in various countries around the world.

What do you think? Do you use your smartphone or tablet for gaming? Does mobile gaming really count as “gaming”? Let us know in the comments.

May 8, 2012
How Technology has Changed the College Experience [Infographic]

I remember speaking with some employers about how they perceived a degree from an online institution versus one from a conventional college. Most of them agreed they valued the conventional degree more because it involves hands-on, face-to-face relationships with their instructors and gives them the opportunity to collaborate with their fellow students. I agreed because I believe collaboration and mentor/mentee relationships are an integral part of the foundation necessary for learning and discovery.

Since the conversation a lot has changed, and at the forefront of that change is social media and tools social media provides. Collaboration and mentorship is available like never before. In fact, reaching wide varieties of people without spending a lot of time and energy is what social networking is all about. Social utilities have great value in almost every sector, but education is one of the most highly influenced.

To go along with this new social wave are the devices that make the collaborations and communications so accessible and exciting. Smartphones and tablet computers add up to more than just the sum of their components. These devices are gateways to endless amounts of information and contacts all over the world. Instructors no longer need to gather resources for the classroom, they are all imported via an online portal.

This next infographic from Presta.com illustrates a number of ways that technology and social media has changed the college experience as we know it. It’s not about notepads and voice-recorded lectures anymore, it’s all about enhanced user experiences.

Getting back to my original point about conventional vs online education, here’s an interesting fact; by the year 2014 3.55 million students will only take online classes. Very interesting. What do you think about the trend?

May 8, 2012
Infographic Asks Which Came First: The iPhone Or The Android

Some debates just never seem to have a clear winner: Mac vs. PC, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, Ford vs. Chevy, Tastes Great vs. Less Filling, iPhone vs. Android. Debates have ranged among various fans and factions on these sorts of topics for ages – or, in the case of iPhone vs. Android, since 2008. And while we can talk about market share or handset sales or profits or penetration into the enterprise market, the debate rages on.

One of the more interesting aspects of the iPhone vs. Android debate, though, is which came first. Of course, everybody knows that the iPhone beat the first Android phone to market by about a year, but fewer people know that Google had been working on Android for quite some time before that (though they made some major modifications once the iPhone proved popular). The timeline of the two platforms’ development turns out to be a pretty interesting story.

To tell that story, the folks at AppleGazette put together an infographic showing the development of the iPhone and Android in parallel, so you can really see which came first. It even contains a few surprises. For example, it turns out that the iPad was actually in development first, and was put on hold so Apple could work on the iPhone. Check out the infographic below, then let us know what you think in the comments:

May 8, 2012
iOS 5.1.1 Jailbroken, But Don’t Update Just Yet

Yesterday we brought you news that Apple had released iOS 5.1.1, a minor update that focused mainly on squashing a few bugs that had been discovered since the release of iOS 5.1 back in March. As usual, those whose iOS devices are jailbroken were warned not to update to the newest version. We are, after all, still waiting on a working jailbreak of iOS 5.1. Even if we weren’t, there’s never a guarantee that the jailbreak that works on an X.1 release will also work on X.1.1.

In a cruel twist of fate, though, it turns out that iOS 5.1.1 has already been jailbroken, but that the wider jailbreak community won’t be able to jailbreak their devices any time soon. Not long at all after Apple pushed out the update yesterday, Stefan Esser (i0n1c) posted the following tweet:

@i0n1c
Stefan EsserOhhh no while I was sleeping my girlfriend accidentally upgraded my iPad 3 to iOS 5.1.1 – http://t.co/Dip8t8Eq 20 hours ago via web · Reply · Retweet · Favorite · powered by @socialditto

The tweet includes a picture of the Cydia store running on his new iPad with iOS 5.1.1 installed:

Now, you may be wondering why I called this a cruel twist of fate. After all, this is a working, untethered jailbreak. It’s what we’ve all been waiting for for two months, right? Well, yes, but the problem is the source. You may recall that shortly the new iPad launched, we ran a story about iOS 5.1 being jailbroken on the iPad 2. Well, the dev who accomplished this wondrous feat back in March was none other than Stefan Esser. Of course, the fact that we’re still waiting for a public jailbreak means that Esser didn’t share what he’d learned with other jailbreak devs. A few weeks later he explained why. In a Twitter conversation last month with another jailbreak dev, pod2g, Esser expressed his opinion that releasing a free-to-the-public jailbreak tool like the one pod2g is working on was a waste, and that having iOS exploits that Apple didn’t know about was a “huge research advantage.”

So there it is: iOS 5.1.1 has, like iOS 5.1 before it, been jailbroken. Unfortunately, the person who did the jailbreaking isn’t inclined to share with the rest of the class. While that’s absolutely his prerogative, one could wish he would refrain from rubbing our noses in it.

On the bright side, if you’re one of the few who is running a tethered jailbreak on an older device – original iPad, iPhone 4 or older – MusclenNerd tweeted yesterday that the redsn0w tool used to establish the tethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1 on those devices would also work for iOS 5.1.1:

@MuscleNerd
MuscleNerdOn the other hand, tinkerers with older devices can tether jailbreak 5.1.1 using last month’s redsn0w (just pre-select the 5.1 IPSW) 21 hours ago via web · Reply · Retweet · Favorite · powered by @socialditto

The fact that the tethered jailbreak solution works for iOS 5.1.1 gives some cause to hope that iOS 5.1.1 didn’t close the exploits pod2g is working with. With luck, that means that the release of iOS 5.1.1 won’t delay the jailbreak by much, if at all. Whatever you do, though, don’t ask pod2g when it will be done.

May 8, 2012
iPad Getting Multi-User Support Soon?

One of the most requested features of the iPad since its launch in 2010 has been the ability to set up multiple user accounts on it, just like on a computer. Apple, however, has continued to regard the iPad in the same way they regard the iPhone and iPod Touch: as single-user devices. Of course, this makes good sense for an iPhone – you might hand one off to a friend or a child to use for a few minutes at a time, but you’re not likely to share one among members of your household. An iPad, though, is more shareable. It’s both easier and more likely for multiple members of a family to share the same iPad. In that case, multi-user support makes much more sense.

With that in mind, one developer recently used Apple’s bug report tool (which can also be used to request new features) to request multi-user support for the iPad. In a surprising turn of events, Apple responded that they were aware of the “issue” and that Apple’s engineers were currently investigating it. The developer forwarded the email from Apple to AppleInsider, who posted it earlier this afternoon. Check it out below:

While this reply may just be the result of some wires getting crossed at Apple – it’s clearly a canned bug report response, after all – it’s still intriguing. It suggests that Apple is looking into bringing multi-user support to the iPad. Of course, there’s no indication at all as to when it might be coming. It could be as soon as iOS 6, or it could come with the next iPad in 2013. Assuming it comes at all, it could still be anywhere from five months to a year away.

What do you think? Would you like to see multi-user support on the iPad? Do you share your iPad among family members, or is it a one-user device? Let us know in the comments.

May 7, 2012
Evernote Acquires Penultimate

Digital note-taking company Evernote has just acquired Penultimate, the iPad handwriting application, according to the Cocoa Box company blog, maker of said app. Evernote has recently been in the news after raising $70 million in its fourth round of funding in a $1 billion IPO valuation, money which they say will be used to “ramp the speed of product improvements, expand internationally, and make future strategic acquisitions.” Penultimate joins the list as one of these strategic acquisitions, and no word on how much it was sold for.

Penultimate can be downloaded from the iTunes Store, and is one of the most popular apps for iPad. Users can record notes of sketches by ‘writing’ on the iPad’s screen, and the app is described as helping one to “remember everything.”

Here’s a clip of Evernote CEO Phil Libin and Penultimate founder Ben Zotto discussing the merger:

Zotto states, “Penultimate is not going away: it remains an independent application, and will continue to espouse the virtues of ease of use, elegance, and “that special something” that have kept you coming back. But I also think you’ll be thrilled, and even surprised, by how much more the app will be able to do for you as we work together to improve it and connect more profoundly with Evernote’s capabilities.”

In addition to the iPad version, Penultimate is being developed for other platforms as well.

May 7, 2012