Apple iPad

iOS 9 Public Beta Available Now

Apple just released public betas of both  iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan. There’s no requirement to be a developer or do anything except visit this link to sign up with your Apple ID. Before loading this (or any) beta software  be certain you have a complete backup of your data. This is the fourth beta release of Apple’s  iOS 9 which is expected to release in Fall 2015.







Tablet Market Shrank in 2014, Here are Some Possible Reasons Why

Last week we learned iPad sales declined … again. It was another sign of a shift in the tablet market different from the smartphone market. Now we hear from the IDC that the broader tablet market shrank with both Apple and Samsung along with ASUS and Amazon taking large hits and only Lenovo and ‘others’ gaining share. We asked ‘why’?


Pivotal Life 1 Fitness Tracker Review

If you’ve been looking for a fitness tracker, your budget is probably in the $50 to $150 range. That’s reasonable for a connected pedometer/fitness data collector, but Pivotal Living disagrees. They see the value of fitness tracking in the service, not the hardware, so they sell a subscription model instead. $12 gets you one year of service and one Pivotal Life 1 band!



T-Mobile 5 GB for 5 Months for $10 on New iPad Air 2 with Apple SIM

The web is buzzing about the latest crop of iPad tablets (Air 2, Mini 3). The loudest chatter is about the SIM card included with the cellular models. For the first time Apple have included an Apple SIM which might be used interchangeably between  AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint (of course one carrier had other ideas).  Of greater interest T-Mobile appears to be offering one heck of a data deal. According to forum regulars on SlickDeals when you choose T-Mobile as the data provider for a new iPad Air 2 AND use the Apple SIM you will be presented with a 5GB of data for…


10 Worst Things from the October Apple iPad Launch

This week Apple held its second product announcement meeting in as many months, this time focusing on the iPad and Mac and Mac OS X. While the September meeting featured the major announcements of large-screen iPhones and the Apple Watch, the October announcements were more subdued – but let’s focus on the disappointing Apple iPad announcements.


FaceTime Needs FaceMail

My wife Sarah’s phone died a watery death this week. You might feel a slight sense of deja vu, and that’s because this already happened a few weeks ago. We’re having a rough month for phones in our house. As a result, we’ve been FaceTiming a fair amount while I am at work, and we’ve concluded FaceTime really needs voicemail.


Disney Karaoke: Frozen App Review for iPad

You’ve seen all the different variations and spoofs of “Let It Go” by Idina Menzel from Frozen, Disney’s animated film remake of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen story. Now it’s your turn to perform, record, and share your musical performance of the nine original featured songs in the Disney Karaoke: Frozen app on iPad.


Felix TwoHands II: A New Handle on Tablet Stands

Using tablets in all aspects of life mean they are viewed at every angle, on every surface, and in both portrait and landscape orientations. Having a stand to accommodate all of these needs is important, and the Felix TwoHands II stand provides a handy and unique way to hold tablets. Read on to see how it fared.



Apple’s Missed Opportunity — the Family Tablet

A coworker came to me recently for advice about buying a tablet for his family, one that he and his wife could use and share with his toddler. Specifically, he wanted a way to create timed parental controls, and he wanted to make sure he was right in believing the Kindle Fire was a better fit than the iPad.



Commonsense.org Commercial Takes on the iPotty Concept

This year, several websites tore the concept of the iPotty to pieces, pointing out that the idea of a potty training tool with an iPad mount is weird at best, disgusting at worst. It also sends a poor message about when it’s appropriate to disconnect from technology, and this Commonsense.org commercial takes that concept and runs with it.


Just Mobile AluBolt Is An iPhone and iPad mini Stand That Is Just Right

If, like me, you love using your iPhone and iPad mini, you are always on the lookout for a great stand that will hold and charge your mobile device. Just Mobile’s new AluBolt promises to do just that. An upright Lightning dock for iPhone and iPad mini, the $49.95 dock is finished in aluminum and includes an integrated USB cable.


The $0.50 Per Week iPad Mini Rental

The high resale value of Apple products has long been a compelling argument for the perceived premium — I remember reselling my Titanium Powerbook for ~80% of retail a year later so I could jump to the new Aluminum Powerbook. In contrast, the high-end Dell XPS laptop I bought at the same time fetched less than 40%.


My #1 iPad Air Disappointment? 1GB of RAM

I love the iPad Air – after a year using the iPad Mini, I was ready for the 9.7″ screen, Retina resolution, the A7 processor power, and getting back to LTE. I was bumping up against the iPad Mini limitations, particularly for gaming and music production. But for all the iPad Air power, I’ve found a new limitation: 1GB RAM. To put it into context, a 2GB chip compared to a 1GB chip adds no more space, weight, heat, doesn’t change layout, and would cost less than $10. The functional role of RAM compared to flash storage is important. Apple…