For years, newspaper subscribers who go on vacation have donated their papers to classrooms where students would do things like cut out pictures. Now, Boston readers will be donating iPads instead. Read more at paidContent »
A lot of people are expected to unwrap smartphones and tablet gifts this month: Tablet shipments are expected to increase 55.8 percent this holiday over last year’s; smartphone shipments are expected to jump 39.5 percent in the same time frame, according to IDC. Read more »
With the launch of Whispercast, a new service for purchasing and managing content across a fleet of devices, Amazon is ramping up its competition against Apple in the education market. Read more »
In two years’ time, your personal cloud will replace your PC as your go-to computing resource, according to Gartner research. The prevailing wisdom is that the desktop and laptop PC — or any non-smartphone, non-tablet device — is headed for the dustbin of history. Read more »
This week’s announcement from Apple indicates more clearly than ever that the company’s path to disrupting the pay-TV ecosystem runs not through the living room but through mobile devices and the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In 2012, the next big thing will be what we do with iPads in the office. Here are a few interesting iPad apps that give us new ways to gather, absorb and manipulate data necessary to get our jobs done. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
After a patent dispute in Germany between Motorola and Apple, local users of iCloud and MobileMe have now had push email functions disabled. But don’t be surprised if the same problem wings its way across the Atlantic soon. Read more »
Apple doesn’t count iPads as laptops when they sell them, or when they account for them to shareholders. And we don’t use iPads the same way as PCs. So why are we throwing them in the same basket? Read more »
Many school districts are rolling out student programs, where most computing is done with the iPad. By more closely integrating with iOS, the upcoming OS X Mountain Lion release should help in schools that make heavy use of iPads and still want to use Macs. Read more »
After running OS X 10.8, or Mountain Lion, for the past few days, I am reaching more for my iPhone than my Galaxy Nexus. The “grand unified user experience” approach of Apple has everything to do with that, and it could blunt Android’s momentum. Read more »
Does your kid want to play with unicorns? You might want to check out the goods at next week’s Toy Fair in New York, where toy makers will show off the latest-and-greatest augmented reality technology that animates once-static games, books, and toys. Read more »
Apple is the king of the PC heap, so long as you consider the iPad among those devices. Research firm Canalys does, and its most recent look at PC sales, focusing on the fourth quarter of 2011, shows the PC market growing with the iPad included. Read more »
Recent studies show that Apple’s iPad is doing very well in the enterprise, with new activations soaring. One company just deployed 1,300 of the Apple tablets across its sales force, because combined with the right software, it believes there’s no better tool a salesperson can carry. Read more »
Apple’s iPad sold 15.4 million units during the final calendar quarter of 2011, representing a 111-percent year-over-year increase in tablet sales. Android tablets may have gained market share during the same period, but it’s PC makers that should fear that growth. Read more »
Apple’s new iBooks digital textbooks initiative has seen 350,000 downloads in just three days, according to new info. That’s a strong start for Apple’s expanded educational offerings, but the real question will be whether that can translate into long-term success. Read more »
In just a short time, modern tablets have become potent shopping tools that generate an outsize effect on online commerce. 2011 was the year that the tablet became an online retailer’s best friend as it emerged as the preferred device for many shoppers to make purchases. Read more »
Apple is making strides with enterprise customers, according to a lot of recent surveys, but how does that look on the ground? Two recent examples include a program that’s bringing Macs to corporate heavyweight General Electric, and the ongoing rollout of iPads among local governments. Read more »
It’s time to start placing bets as to how many iPads Apple will sell in 2012. Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu is starting things off with an estimate of 48 million, he said Wednesday morning. Wu says that number could end up being “conservative,” and I agree. Read more »
Apple might not have as impressive a year in 2012 in terms of iPad growth as it did in 2011, according to some early predictions. Numbers from DisplaySearch on Friday indicate 9.7-inch flat panel shipments for iPads are expected to hit around 65 million in 2012. Read more »
Apple is expected to have a great holiday quarter, which some believe would be company’s best ever. New data from an Apple supplier- Multi-Fineline Electronix which makes printed circuit boards for iPhone and iPads – is only bolstering that argument, according to UBS analyst Maynard Um. Read more »
The new OnLive Desktop app making its debut at CES this week will let users stream their full-featured — and resource-intensive — Microsoft Office applications to their Apple iPads. The company runs virtualized versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint on its data centers in the cloud. Read more »
Sony remains one of the most important brands in the world, synonymous with quality rich media and the devices that present it. The problem is that, despite a tagline that states “make.believe,” the company is, in a sense, simply playing make-believe with its business. However, the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
BYOD policies aren’t the only reasons Apple products’ presence are growing at your office. Corporate IT departments are more and more buying Macs and iPads for employees to use. That’s according to a new report from analyst firm Forrester published Friday. Read more »
Apple is facing a lawsuit in France over its retail practices, and that case will be monitored closely by other resellers on the continent, a new report says. Still, others say this is just business as usual for Apple and the French case won’t change that. Read more »
Supply chain reports released on Friday indicate that Apple will opt for indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) instead of in-plane switching (IPS) display panels for its upcoming iPad 3. The change would provide benefits in terms of energy consumption, cost reduction and improved resolution. Read more »
Tablets are set to be a hit with small- and medium-sized businesses in 2012, according to a new NPD survey, and Apple is set to take full advantage. The iPad has the advantage of being synonymous with “tablet” in enterprise, which is great news for Apple. Read more »
Apple is reportedly gearing up to unveil three different models of the iPad, including two brand-new offerings, on Jan. 26, according to new reports from supply chain sources on Thursday. There is plenty to like about the report, but I wouldn’t count on its coming true. Read more »
Since I use multiple mobile devices on various platforms, it sometimes gets to be a chore trying to read saved web pages when offline. I’ve been bouncing back and forth between two great solutions: Instapaper and Read It Later. But both might be trumped by Evernote. Read more »
Traditionally, the Mac has made up an extremely small sliver of corporate PC purchases, but over the last few quarters, more and more of them have been incorporated into the workplace. And on the heels of this trend was an announcement from the analysts over at ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
f people are buying through online retail sites on mobile, they’re most likely doing so on Apple devices, according to a new report. iPads and iPhones accounted for over 92 percent of online retail not originating from a desktop device in December, according to the study. Read more »
One thing iOS and Mac developers need to take more advantage of is the halo effect of Apple’s devices. Real Racing 2 for the Mac, is a perfect example of how to capitalize on that with value-added features. Read more »
Travelers are getting a welcome gift from Skype in the form of free Wi-Fi access at more than 50 U.S. airports to place voice or video calls over Skype’s service on PCs, Macs, or iOS devices. The year-end promotion runs from Dec. 21 through Dec. 27. Read more »
On Friday Apple quietly increased the discounts on refurbished iPad 2s, offering some considerable savings just in time for the holidays. The 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 now starts at $419, which is $80 cheaper than buying it new. Read more »
Apple posted a teaser on Tuesday that’s heavy on the tease and light on the info, telling shoppers only that Apple will indeed hold a “one-day shopping event.” But Apple isn’t the only place to look for deals on Apple products this Friday. Read more »
An interesting new survey out of the U.K. finds that a significant number of iPads may not be getting as much use as you might expect. How often do you use your iPad? According to the new survey, it’s possible more than a quarter of you answered once a week or less. Read more »
The Dutch Senate is going paperless, and the iPad is going to get them there. A new program to replace most of the governing body’s paper documents with a digital app is progressing smoothly and saving money in the Netherlands, two weeks into launch. Read more »
During VMworld this week, VMware introduced a new Dropbox-like application called Project Octopus that will let users safely store, access and share corporate documents. It all so sounded so promising, and then someone asked me whether it will actually get used. Read more »
As millions of consumers gained access to the Internet, new market opportunities emerged. But today, content is so heavy, and networks so overburdened, that more efficient use of the network is a critical behavior. This provides a new market opportunity for content optimization and CDNs. Read more »
