How the iPad is Changing the Way We Learn

iPad – Learning more Personalized 

With the iPad, classroom contents could go way beyond the classroom with the provision of over 80,000 app appropriate for education, virtual tours, and videos from experts and institution from across the world, interactive books on any given topic and speeches and much more. In this digital world the progress in updated technology is on the rise and every function faced with problems comes up with innovative ideas which are increasing by leaps and bound.

Learning has been enhanced with iPad making learning more personalized wherein with a few taps, one can customize with materials which could fit with their level and as well as learning style. With various options now made available one could choose from the available app to suit the need of the individual for instance for those keen on learning by listening, they could download a podcast from iTunes U on Newton’s laws of motion or for those who tend to learn through concrete interaction, could choose an app which will enable the student with an appropriate choice. One will find various contents on different subjects as well as grades making it easy for students at different levels of learning. With the use of iPad one could make teaching all students the same lesion in various ways.

iPad – Device with Free Apps

Learning tends to become interesting now with the iPad since it gives student the opportunity to create and every iOS device has immense features which activate the mind of young individuals who are keen in exploring and learning the various features that are equipped in the devices. Every iOS device has iPhoto, iMovie, Pages, Numbers and Keynote, GarageBand which can change a given assignment into something big and special. This enables them to `speculate and explore’ which makes their assignment all the more interesting and appealing.

The device which they love to use have amazing free apps which helps them to write, analyse data as well as present their work in a very attractive manner. In Pages, they could make term papers something appealing with photos, videos as well as graphic which could enhance the presentation. In the case of data-rich projects, Numbers could prove to be beneficial in expressing ideas in tables, charts and graphs which could be more than a spread-sheet while in Keynote; they could create presentations with striking alterations and effects.

Compatible with Microsoft Office 

Most of these apps have been designed for iOS devices and Mac and are compatible with Microsoft Office to enable the students on a Mac or PC to share documents. With iCloud, students can also access their work from any device they could be using such as the Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.Further options in enhancing the creativity are through creative apps such as iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand which helps in transforming a typical term paper or research project wherein students could use their creativity in shooting and editing their own HD video with iMovie, create visual journal with iPhoto or even record, edit as well as mix music for any project with GarageBand. The iPad technology has given way to extraordinary implication for education with its design, functionality together with its capabilities thus enhancing the possibility of a technology based classroom.

A Tool to Saving Precious Storage on Your Phone

Force2SD – Storage of Precious Application

With many applications being updated, users tend to make the utmost use of them which have made great progress in the present world. Storage is an ability to manage and store the necessary or important data which takes up some space with no impact on the performance. With many sophisticated smartphones and gadgets available in the market, the pace of downloading that takes place with plenty of content being stored on the device is on the increase and it tends to get difficult in making space for everything to fit into the internal memory of the phone.

Hence the external memory or the SD card is the solution to resolve this issue and for a smooth operation of the SD card the need of an app called Force2SD is the choice. At times one may need to use force to get things done ensuring that no obstacles come their way in the daily functions. For storage of precious application, the option of storing important content can be done with the help of Force2SD which helps to force several apps and move to SD card external storage when the system does not allow you to move them, thus saving space in the app area of storage.

Moves Apps to SD Card External Storage

Android 2.2 versions had introduced the feature enabling to move apps to SD card external storage and usually enable the movement of application marked by the developer as movable while Force2SD tends to move the application not marked as movable. It also moves the application back and sorts it alphabetically or by apk size The internal memory of the phone could get loaded with too much content in the form of videos, images audio with less space and hence the need for external memory or the SD card. At the time of using Force2SD one needs to adhere to a few things such as –

• Applications which have been moved to SD card or external storage do not get an on-boot signal whenever the device is booted. In such cases, the application should not be moved to perform some operations on boot though one should always move these application back if facing any problems. If the application is not needed to start up on the boot, Force2SD could be used to move it.

• It may take some time after a reboot probably a couple of minutes for the OS to show the icons of app that could have been moved which is normal since that is how the OS’s apps on SD feature operates.

• Some apps which are protected do not move

• A slow scan of application is done when the app is started for the first time

Excellent App for Storage

This is an excellent app for those who tend to constantly struggle with their space on the smartphones though they should ensure that the android device is rooted to enjoy plenty of space with Force2SD. By default, Force2SD could also scan for orphan app files when it has started, on the SD card though at times the system may fail to delete the app file on the SD card when the app has been uninstalled. If any orphan file is located, it will prompt if it needs to be deleted and this could help with some reboot issues.

Apple Plans Web TV Service in Fall

Apple’s - Internet Based TV Service

Apple, it has been revealed, is in talks with several leading television groups for an Internet based TV service for its iPhone, iPad as well as Apple TV set-top box. It has been reported that the technology company is working out in offering slimmed down bundle of TV networks this coming fall and the service would be having around twenty-five channels which would be anchored by broadcasters like ABC, CBS and Fox that would be made available on Apple devices like the Apple TV.

An anonymous source has informed that the service which would be announced later this year offers a bundle of channels and would be smaller and cheaper than the overstuffed catalog offered in a cable subscription. Apple’s plans for a web TV series was followed by an announcement that it had formed an exclusive partnership with HBO offering the premium cable network’s new digital TV service, known as HBO Now.According to sources familiar with the matter, at present, the talks does not involve NBCUniversal, the owner of the NBC broadcast network and USA and Bravo cable channels due to a fall-out between Apple and NBCUniversal parent company – Comcast Corp.

New Service – June, Launch – September 

Till last year, Comcast and Apple had been in talks and were working together on a streaming television platform which would be combining Apple’s expertise in user interfaces along with Comcast’s strength in the delivery of broadband. According to source, Apple was of the belief that Comcast was easing it along while the cable giant had its focus on its own XI Web enabled set-top box. Another media executive had stated that it would be difficult to launch a service without NBCUniversal channels, for Apple.

Apple in the meantime was in talks with Walt Disney Co; CBS Corp. and 21st Century Fox Inc.; besides other media companies to offer the well-known channels while leaving the several smaller networks in the standard cable TV package. News Corp and 21st Century Fox, the owner of The Wall Street Journal were part of the same company till mid-2013. Some sources have also revealed that the company would announce its new service in June and its launch would be in September while media executive has stated that they believed that Apple is planning to price the service at $30 to $40 per month.

Live TV Streaming Service 

For years now, Apple had been on and off talks with media companies with a hope of creating a subscription TV service which could be delivered over the internet and several of its proposals turned out to be essential but failed to succeed. Apple’s TV services would now be entering the market amidst strong competition in Internet TV services and most of the companies are looking for means of targeting those who would not want to pay the nominal $90 price for a TV cable package with hundreds of channels and intend to enjoy online video.

Apple is continuing with its proposal in creating a live TV streaming service in its recent talks, with a huge on-demand library which would be stored in the `cloud’ and it could be difficult for Apple to get rights to all the programming intending to offer, including full seasons of shows. Several of the media companies tend to have deals to license contents like these to outlets such as Hulu and Netflix.

What you can do with Digital Touch on the Apple Watch

Apple Watch – New Feature of Taps & Drawings

Apple has recently included a new feature in the Apple Watch which enables two users to communicate through taps and drawings as well as by sharing their heart rates. The new feature known as Digital Touch enables two Apple Watch users to communicate with one another without the need of texting or calling.

Last fall when the company had unveiled its watch it had only provided demo models of the new device – polished prototypes of the hardware running on non-working loops of the software. The company has disclosed that the device would be priced at $350. Instead of making any attempts in writing the text message on the small screen, the Digital Touch feature enables two Apple Watch owners to communicate via taps and doodles and once the two users are connected they can start communicating.

The method which is used first in order to contact a colleague is by tapping the screen on the Apple Watch which is similar to the Poke feature on Facebook. The user can tap a certain patter on the watch face where the friend will be able to feel it on their wrist through mild vibrations.

Digital Touch – Sharing Heart Rate 

The next method is sketching an animated message which can be done on dragging the finger across the screen to draw a coloured sketch quickly which could be sent across to their friend. Sharing heart rate with others could also be done with the Digital Touch and when one presses two fingers on the screen the built-in heart rate sensor automatically tends to record sending the beats per minute reading to the friend.

 According to Apple this is `an intimate way to inform someone about their feelings.’ The watch is an interesting creation with its stainless steel middle tier together with the steel mesh Milanese loop wristband and besides being beautiful it is also one of the best looking computers one could have on their wrist.

Earlier the company had made a show of the rotating crown on the side of the device, what most of us would call a watch dial and held the crown as the next great interface something as the mouse, the iPods’ click-wheel or the touch screen on the iPhone. It has two main functions. When it is pressed, one gets to the watch’s main screen of apps or if the user is already on that screen, it switches displaying the clock. One could consider the crown as a home button.

Watch – Computer for Wrist

Moreover, it could also be used for scrolling as well as zooming while in the music app, one could turn it to scroll through the artists. If the user is in the photos app, they could turn the crown to zoom from the various set of photos and focus on an individual one. Scrolling could also be done with the finger on the screen and this method seems to be much faster than the crown where touching and tapping is much easier than turning the dial.

Besides the standard taps the screen has another tap mode known as force touch that functions just as it sounds which is press the screen harder. With force touch it provides an extra level of settings in the apps where in the case of force touch an email, one would have the options of deleting, replying or marking them as unread.

Yet it is difficult to forget that the watch is a computer for your wrist and in its top end versions it misses the understated elegance of old fashioned high end analog watches and Apple is working on something unusual in trying to develop an electronic device which would match the timeless appeal of a piece of jewellery.

Microsoft Plans To Bring Siri Competitor Cortana To iOS Devices

Microsoft to put Cortana on Machine

Microsoft is now making its way towards advanced version of its competitor, Apple’s Siri researching from an artificial intelligence project known as `Einstein’. The company is running its personal assistant – Cortana on its Windows phone for around a year and would be putting the new version on the desktop with the forthcoming Window 10 somewhere this autumn which would be available as a stand-alone app that could be used on phones and tablets and powered by Apple’s Inc.’s – AAPL.O, iOS and Google Inc.’s GOOG.O Android, according to users familiar with the project.

Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research and part of the Einstein project, in an interview at the company’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, stated that `this kind of technology that can read and understand email will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana which they are working on for the fall time frame’. Microsoft and Horvitz refrained from disclosing any plans to take Cortana beyond Windows. The idea of putting Cortana on machine with software from rivals like Google and Apple together with the Einstein project is not reported. The name Cortana is an artificial intelligence character in a video game series known as `Halo’.

`Artificial Intelligence’ Concept 

The `artificial intelligence’ concept is broad and computers and mobile phones for instance have already shown skill with spoken language scrutinizing through emails for data. Microsoft is of the belief that its work on search, speech recognition and machine learning will enable it to transform its digital assistant into the first intelligent agent which would be what user would require.

Siri by comparison is advertised as responding to request. Google’s mobile app that does not have Siri or Cortana has been offering limited predictive information cards depending on what the user intends to know. Earlier, Microsoft had made attempts in creating digital assistants without much success and Microsoft Bob which was released in 1995 which was intended to make the use of the computer easy did not come up with the desired results. Similarly the Office Assistant which was nicknamed `Clippy’ met with the same fate, a few years thereafter.

Cortana - Supportive Service

Horvitz had commented that `they are defining the competitive landscape, of who could provide the most supportive service that make life easier, keep track of things, that complement human memory in a way that could help them get things done. A monitor which stands outside his door known as `The Assistant’, showing a woman’s face which can converse with visitors has access to Horvitz’s calendar and can also book meetings.

`Lifebrowser’ runs on his desktop, which is a program that has the potential of storing everything from appointments to photos and utilises machine learning in order to identify important moments while a keyword search for his university professor could instantly provide photos as well as video from their last meeting. Cortana has the capability of telling a mobile phone user when he ought to leave for the airport several days after it has read the email and the user’s intention of planning a flight. Moreover it can automatically check the status of flights and determine where the phone is located using GPS as well as check the condition of the traffic.