New iPad Announced: Retina Display, 5MP Camera, 4G LTE
Apple just announce the third generation iPad.
The new iPad has an enormously high-resolution Retina Display, the same
camera found in your iPhone 4S, 4G LTE and a faster Apple A5X dual core
processor with quad core graphics.
Apple has
packed a lot of new technology into the iPad, but you can still count on
10 hours of battery life for the WiFi model and a starting price of
$499 for the new iPad.
You don’t
have to wait long to get your hands on the iPad. Apple also announced
the new iPad release date as March 16th at Apple Stores starting at 5PM.
The iPad comes in black and white, both of which are available on day one.
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Soon, mobile technology to provide drinking water and electricity
Washington,
May 4: Ever wondered if mobile technology could convert non-potable
water into drinking water and extract hydrogen from it to generate
electricity?
A
team of researchers has developed an aluminum alloy that could be used
in a new type of mobile technology to provide power and drinking water
to villages and also for military operations.
The alloy contains aluminum, gallium, indium and tin.
It
is immersed in the freshwater or saltwater which causes a spontaneous
reaction, splitting the water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules, said
Jerry Woodall, professor of electrical and computer engineering in
Purdue University.
The
hydrogen can then be fed to a fuel cell to generate electricity,
producing water in the form of steam as a by-product, he said.
Since
the technology works with saltwater, it might have marine applications,
such as powering boats and robotic underwater vehicles.
“There
is a big need for this sort of technology in places lacking
connectivity to a power grid and where potable water is in short
supply,” Woodall added.
“Because
aluminium is a low-cost, non-hazardous metal that is the third-most
abundant metal on Earth, this technology promises to enable a
global-scale potable water and power technology, especially for off-grid
and remote locations,” he said.
With
this technology, potable water could be produced for about 1 dollar per
gallon, and electricity could be generated for about 35 cents per
kilowatt hour of energy.
“There
is no other technology to compare it against, economically, but it’s
obvious that 34 cents per kilowatt hour is cheap compared to building a
power plant and installing power lines, especially in remote areas,”
Woodall said. (ANI)
Ushering iPad into the Classroom
A number
of built-in features, tools, and add-ons are helping to propel Apple’s
iPad into the classroom. Technology analyst Denise Harrison looks at the
benefits of iPad in education and predicts some unanticipated
applications
Tablet
devices are hardly new; Apple’s own Newton, introduced in 1987, could
fairly be called an ancestor to the iPad with its tablet form, tethered
pen touch interface, and easy portability. Even though other
manufacturers marketed tablets based on the Newton operating system, for
a variety of reasons unrelated to the quality of the technology, the
Newton never made it past the left side of the adoption bell curve.Apple iPad is smoothly and quickly gliding that slope. In fact, according to analysts, iPads will soon bring in more revenue to Apple than its traditional computers, coming in second only to the iPhone.
What the iPad has that the Newton didn’t is an existing user base and familiar user interface. For the first time, it is possible that the child who learns to play cartoons on a device (iPhone, iPod touch, and now, iPad) could be using the same touchscreen interface a decade hence to create a high school report. Uses for higher education and business could make the iPad, and iPad II, iPad III, etc., constant companions long into adulthood.
iPad’s adoption is aided by the fact that iPods and iPhones are plenty past “The Chasm,” and users are comfortable with and supportive of the interface. Buying the iPad is viewed as a simple, logical step up to the latest model of iAnything. In addition, the developer community is perhaps more vibrant than any software community ever, owing to accessible development tools and the ready-made marketing channel that is the App store.
The prognosis for iPad’s use in the classroom is good, said Sandra Sutton Andrews, research director in the Applied Learning Technologies Institute at Arizona State University. “The concept is perfect for education–a lightweight computer, relatively inexpensive, capable of being used almost anywhere: in your hands, on a table, attached to a wall, built into a tabletop,” she said.
Andrews’s job involves investigating uses of technology in education–especially emerging technologies. She designs and conducts research, teaches university courses, and works with K-12 teachers to help assess and satisfy technology needs. One of her next anticipated projects is setting up an iPad laboratory for a deeper examination of features and benefits.
“Add to this the fact that creating apps [for iPad] is not difficult, and at that point everything changes in terms of possibilities,” she said. “Educators are already finding new uses for the available free or inexpensive commercial apps and are creating new apps that teach, engage, and even collect data. What’s more, the educators behind these apps are making their resources available at no cost to other educators.”
- Good, some would call it excellent, color reproduction;
- Natural platform for e-textbooks;
- Large, 9.7-inch screen with 1,024 x 768-pixel resolution;
- 3G and WiFi for “always on” Internet access;
- Accessibility (support for closed captioning, voice over screen reader, full-screen zoom magnification, and support for nine languages, for example).
While iPad looks, on the whole, good for teachers, students, and classrooms, on the down side, iPad doesn’t yet support Flash (an omission familiar to owners of other Apple iOS devices), and some complain about the dearth of physical connectors, such as dedicated USB ports and SD card slots.
Sam Farsaii agreed the lack of Flash support is a negative. Farsaii, chair of ISTE’s SIG1to1 special interest group for 1:1 technology in K-16 education, said he hopes the Flash player support problem will be addressed with HTML 5. Farsaii has a long list of what he likes about the iPad for education, including its portability and lightness, flexibility, and ease of use. He also cited long battery life, instant on, ease of software download, screen resolution quality, innovative software at reasonable price, and wide availability of freeware as advantages. His only other suggestion, besides adding Flash support, is adding a camera.
Another complaint by some early reviewers is the iPad does not support full Mac OS X applications. This may not be such a bad thing, as we explore below, in a look at built-in features, optional accessories, and creative-yet-unadvertised possibilities of iPads in schools.
1. Built-in Benefits That Ease Content Creation
Easy positioning for comfortable useThe iPad provides ease of use in two ways laptops do not. The form factor of a single light-weight (1.5 pounds with WiFi, 1.6 pounds with 3G) panel and touch technology facilitate class content creation from nearly anywhere–the beach, the subway, and the diner. One doesn’t need to fuss with the cumbersome folding laptop screen (which, despite the nomenclature, users have had problems positioning comfortably on laps anyway). Users also don’t need to concern themselves with setting the screen at just the right angle to avoid glare from lights or the sun. While the laptop’s light weight provides portability, physical placement for use is still limited. iPad can actually sit on a lap, and is light enough to hold at an angle with one hand and work with the other, thereby leaving users unconcerned with the right surface at the right angle.
Always-on InternetThe second ease-of-use benefit of the iPad is availability of 3G and WiFi. Typically, an instructor working in, say, a coffee shop would begin a lesson and inevitably arrive at a point requiring Internet research. Lesson creation is put on hold until he or she has access to a hotspot or returns to the office or home for an Internet connection. The combination of 3G and WiFi means there is no need to pause work until an Internet hot spot is near in order to complete a project; an iPad user can seamlessly go back and forth between creating content and researching information on the Internet. (Notebooks and netbooks, of course, have the option of connecting via 3G, though this option is generally available through an add-on and is not an integrated feature of the device itself.)
Long battery lifeThe iPad’s battery life is impressive: nine hours of battery on 3G and up to 10 hours on WiFi. Long battery life is convenient for content creation and playback; the iPad offers long periods of time between charges even when playing videos on full-color screens, which is a big drain on batteries.
The combination of ease of creation, flexible positioning, large color screen, long battery life, and the always-on Internet connection present advantages over notebooks and mobile devices that aid instructors in creating content with more fluidity and fewer interruptions–a relief for those who prefer the satisfaction and time-savings of being able to focus, when possible, on one project at a time.
2. Optional Accessories
iPad Dock
The iPad Dock could benefit from a different name since, unlike most docking systems for handhelds, the iPad Dock offers more than just charging and syncing.
One of the more education-friendly features offered by the iPad Dock is audio, namely, support for external speakers. The built-in speaker is considered by most to provide better quality and greater volume than the iPhone internal speaker, making the iPad audio adequate for workgroup listening, but the iPad Dock’s audio line out allows connection to external speakers, giving sound a boost and enabling the iPad to be used the same way as any audio source device.
Next on the iPad Dock’s plus list is the design. The iPad Dock doubles as a stand. When in the dock, the iPad sits upright at a slight tilt, comfortable for video viewing, and when paired with an external keyboard, the docked iPad can look and feel much like the screen for a desktop computer.
VGA connectionThe VGA cable, which connects to the optional iPad Dock, is designed specifically for connecting the iPad to a TV or a front projector. Any visual on the iPad can be shown on a larger screen. Yes, notebook computers can do this too, but just as the iPad infused elegance into the creation process, the iPad does so for presentation delivery as well. Because of the form factor, which allows the iPad to be used with one hand, the instructor can actually walk around the room while continuing to control the projected images. He or she isn’t stuck at the table or lectern where a laptop would normally reside.
The iPad Camera Connection KitIn this age when students are taught to present content in visual formats, the digital camera and digital video camera are increasing in importance as classroom tools, yet sharing those productions with groups has not been easy. For the most part, photos are shared via phone or e-mail, and videos are shared via Internet sites such as YouTube. The iPad Camera Connection Kit, an optional connection to the iPad Dock, provides an easier, faster path from individual shoots to sharing with the class. Students connect the camera to the iPad, download images and videos, then using the optional VGA connector, students and instructors may display photos and play videos from the iPad on large screen TVs or projectors.
Long power cordThe peripheral 6 foot power cord is one of the most popular accessories so far. Anyone who has tried to power a mobile device with a short power cord appreciates the convenience of a long one. The popularity should hold true for educators as well, since most power outlets are located on classroom walls, and most classrooms are not equipped with table pop-up connection panels.
iWork optional apps
Apple offers several productivity applications that are tailored for the iPad and sold at the iTunes store. These three applications provide productivity capabilities similar to traditional Windows applications at fractions of the price ($9.99 each). Keynote, for example, is a drag-and-drop presentation creation app, and its presentations can be exported into PowerPoint. Pages is for word processing and supports Microsoft Word -supported file formats, including Office Open XML (.docx) and Office 97 or later (.doc). And Numbers allows users to create spreadsheets that can be exported into Microsoft Excel.
Apps for that
iPad application development for education will, no doubt, be hot. The ease of application development and the general affordability of the applications will be great news for instructors, whose toughest job could be deciding among them.
3. Unintended-Yet-Beneficial Uses of iPad Features and Accessories
iWork
Educators are discovering that students are not always fluent in traditional office-type applications the way the average employee is today. iWork, Apple’s productivity software suite, could be the great equalizer and could even make knowing other productivity software irrelevant for many day-to-day tasks. iWork may not have it all, but it has enough, especially when one considers the price: Mail, maps, note pad app, and Web browser Safari are included; the presentation, word processing, and spreadsheet apps are just $9.99 each.
Calendar
The built-in calendar affords instructors the same features most computer calendars provide. Instructors can create events (such as test dates, presentation dates and times, and activities). We had a theory about how the iPad calendar might be used to keep students and teachers informed of lesson plans and important dates. We checked with Apple, and the company told us, indeed, the instructor can invite all students to an event, such as a due date, and, as students respond by confirming participation, the instructor will be able to know the student has been advised of dates he or she needs to keep in mind. In the case of K-12, parents can be invited to events as well to keep them informed of homework assignments, test dates, and due dates for special projects. As dates change, all parties are notified. Even if all students don’t have possession of an iPad, they can obtain this information by accessing a shared iPad in the class (more below).
If all students have iPads or access to iPads or other iOS devices, instructors can communicate with them as a group using Calendar or using individual or group e-mail, with all involved parties benefiting from uniform interfaces and functionality. These methods of receiving data, appointment requests, and messages might just help prepare young students for the work environment of their adulthood.
iPad mounts
Mounts designed for the iPad are hitting the market, and while a mount is a simple solution, this functionality will begin to encourage creative uses of iPads not found in the marketing materials. For example, iPad displays on inside or outside walls of the classroom can, at a glance, provide students and parents with curricula; assignments by week, day or month; test dates, and student presentation dates and times. By checking a mounted iPad daily, students and parents without their own iPads can access the same information about lessons and assignments as those who do.
A table-top mounted iPad sits upright and might be used for calendar information, and also for on-demand videos related to current lessons or to facilitate group collaboration, for just two additional examples. Wall- or table-mounted, the iPad can show fun videos of class activities, list spelling bee results, display sports scores and team videos outside team rooms, and deliver a slide show of science fair projects. Any school-wide or group/class-focused information can be displayed on a mounted iPad.
Using Calendar, an iPad mounted on a wall outside a meeting room could display room reservations, providing a rather affordable room reservation solution. Apple confirmed that, with shared calendars, a group of teachers and administrators who have been granted access to designated calendars will be able to remotely reserve a conference room. Other teachers will be able to see the times already booked and reserve their own times for using the room as well.
Mounted iPads bring a number of potential uses for the classroom. Considering the affordability and the uniformity and ease of the iPad interface, we can expect K-12 and higher education educational technologists to use mounted iPads to bring many new applications to Apple’s latest innovation.
MobileMe
MobileMe software syncs between devices automatically, without having to physically connect those devices. This means that updating contacts, e-mail, and calendars can be done from anywhere to anywhere. Any update an instructor makes on a home computer, or an iPad, can update any other iPad or computer. A teacher, therefore, could change the lesson plan at home in the evening, and the updates will automatically appear on a mounted iPad or computer in the classroom set up for public, or class-wide, use and display. (Due dates of assignments, test dates, and other calendar invitations updated remotely will change for individual students as per usual e-mail functionality.)
Another feature of MobileMe useful to the classroom is the cloud-based iDisk, which enables file storage and sharing online. This allows teachers or students to upload and share files that can later be accessed by students via computer, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
USB support on the Camera Connection Kit
The iPad Camera Connection Kit has two ways that users can import photos and videos from a digital camera: the camera’s USB cable or directly from an SD card. The camera kit’s USB capability has unintended, and beneficial, consequences not lost on fervent iOS users.
Many fault the iPad for its omission of a USB port, but a number of clever people are finding ways to use that port in ways other than advertised. Chris Foresman, writing for Ars Technica, collected stories of successful experiments including the camera kit USB port to power USB speakers, headsets, microphones, and keyboards. As Foresman mentioned, it does bode well for expanded USB support in later versions of Apple iPads.
Will It Float?
Is iPad the killer app? For the general public, probably so, at least for a few years. For education, we won’t learn pros versus cons until a few pioneers weigh in. Multi-touch has for some time been present in kiosks, Smart interactive whiteboards, and futuristic movies. The real killer app is touch technology, which is (finally) here to stay.
Google Would Like to Sell You a Tablet
The ad and search company launches a seven-inch tablet, called the Nexus 7, centered on consuming media.
Today,
Google unveiled a seven-inch tablet computer that it will sell directly
to consumers. The device, unveiled at the company's annual I/O
conference in San Francisco, was pitched not as a competitor with
Apple's popular iPad, but as a simple way to enjoy movies, books, games,
and other content bought through Google's Play store.
That makes
the tablet, priced at $199, a close match to Amazon's Kindle
Fire, launched in September of last year. That tablet also has a
seven-inch screen and is also centered on consuming digital content.
Google's price includes a $25 credit to spend on apps and content.
Google
will begin taking orders for Nexus 7 tablets starting today and will
ship them in "mid-July," said Hugo Barra, director of product management
for Google's Android mobile operating system. "It's a tablet optimized
around all of this content in Google Play," he said. "We partnered with a
great company, Asus, to help us build just that device."
Barra said
that Nexus 7 offers up to nine hours of video playback and 300 hours of
standby time. "It's only 340 grams—just about the weight of a standard
paperback," he said. The Nexus 7 will initially be available only in the
U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia.
Barra
emphasized that the device is powerful enough for high-end gaming, and
introduced demonstrations of rich, 3-D games with sophisticated
lighting, water, and fog effects. The Nexus 7's Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core
chip and 12-core GPU makes it more powerful than Amazon's tablet, which
can't run high-end games. However, Amazon is expected to release a more
powerful version of the Fire before the end of the year.
Google has
tried to sell gadgets directly to consumers before, without success. In
2010, the company began selling the Nexus One smart phone online, in an
attempt to boost the popularity of the Android mobile operating system
and to shift the mobile industry away from carrier-controlled contracts.
But Google was unprepared for the onslaught of customer-service
requests it received after the gadget reached people's hands, and the
venture didn't convince large numbers of people to embrace the notion of
buying a phone without a service agreement. Google's Nexus One
experiment ended after just six months.
The
relatively simple tablet is also a departure from Google's previous
attempts to reinvent what people get from computers. Both the version of
Android for tablets and the browser-only Chrome OS that powers the
stripped-down laptops dubbed Chromebooks present complicated and
relatively unpopular experiences compared to Apple's iPad. The Nexus 7
was not talked about as a general purpose computing device to be used
for activities such as creating and editing documents, signaling that it
is not intended to compete with the iPad.
Amazon is
known to have sold many millions of its Fire tablets, but it does not
report sales figures for that product or any of its black-and-white
Kindle e-readers. A report by Oregon investment bank Pacific Crest this
week said that based on the demand for components used to make Amazon's
Kindle products, demand for the Fire is growing at 60 percent annually
while demand for black-and-white e-readers is falling back.
In a
report published before Google's tablet was announced, Gartner predicted
that 118.9 million tablets will be sold worldwide in 2012, almost
double the number sold in 2011.
The Nexus 7
will ship with a new version of Google's Android mobile operating
system called Jelly Bean. As well as various improvements and new
features, Jelly Bean introduces upgrades that promise to match or exceed
Apple's Siri personal assistant. A Google Search app can answer some
spoken questions by making use of the company's new Knowledge Graph. A
user can speak a query, for example, "Who is the prime minister of
Japan?" and the phone speaks the answer right back.
Another
search feature in Jelly Bean, called Google Now, goes further, and it is
a striking illustration of how much Google knows about Web users. It
uses the history of a person's Google searches to predict what a person
needs to know before they ask. When you open the app, it can show sports
scores for teams you have searched for in the past, or the latest
update on a flight you searched for yesterday. Google Now will also work
out your usual commute and advise when bad traffic means you should
change it; and it will bring up translation and currency conversion
tools when the phone detects that you've traveled abroad.
Underlining
Google's commitment to making its Play store a popular place to buy
digital content, the company also showed a spherical gadget dubbed Nexus
Q. It is designed to to connect to a TV and hi-fi speakers to play
content bought through the Google Play store. The device is controlled
using an Android smart phone or tablet.
iPad 2 for your New Gadgets
If
you are interested in finding the best experience for your gadgets
entertainment, it is better for you to use iPad 2. You can find new
technology in this gadget. It comes in thinner design that will be more
powerful and easy to carry. browsing information in the internet, watching movies, or playing games, this has become the smartest choice for you
Peugeot Unveils New Technology on BB1 Concept
As Peugeot celebrates 120 years of automotive innovation, the company
has used the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show to unveil the BB1 Concept. The
urban-focused vehicle debuts a number of innovative Peugeot technologies
designed to address the real world mobility requirements of the
residents of future cities. Capable of seating four people in a vehicle
just 2.5 metres long, the BB1 concept car is a full electric vehicle
that reinvents many aspects of the automobile.
The BB1 brief was to tackle all issues of the modern world faced by
people on a daily basis in order to offer maximum versatility, a compact
size; be dynamic and manoeuverable (3.5m turning circle).
To achieve all this, Peugeot faced a challenge never before seen in the
history of the automobile: accommodating four people in a car 2.5m long.
This record use of interior space could potentially lead to a larger
load capacity, even though its “compact” size gives it the ability to
park in extremely tight spots – even perpendicular to the pavement.
To meet this challenge, the structure of the passenger compartment has
drawn inspiration from two-wheeled vehicles in terms of ergonomics: the
driver controls the vehicle by adopting a new driving position – more
vertical than is usual.
This is mainly made possible through the absence of floor pedals.
The rear passenger is seated in tandem behind the driver. On the
right-hand side, front and rear passengers adopt the same position.
It is thanks to this original configuration for a four-wheel vehicle that the BB1 has such a totally original design.
Access to the vehicle is through the inverted door opening mechanism, while boot access is through a tail board and a tailgate.
The interior can be transformed as required to offer a load volume of
160 litres (with four occupants), rising to 855 litres (with just one
person in the car).
Rear occupant space is helped with the implementation of a double bubble roof, as seen on the RCZ sports car.
As well as the openness and brightness brought by the large windows, the
BB1 presents an extensive set of interactive technologies.
The colour display and the vehicle’s audio system provide an ideal
setting for “smartphone” functionalities: telephone, navigation,
Internet access, radio, MP3… simply by connecting your device to the USB
jack, or the 12V socket.
Rear-view cameras remove the need for mirrors, optimising the width of
the vehicle and improving its aerodynamics, while adding to the
high-tech aspect of the interior.
The BB1 is fitted with electric motors in the rear wheels, designed in
association with Michelin, and maximising the interior space.
It draws its inspiration from the world of the quad bike, with a maximum power output of 15 kW (20hp) – or 7.5 kW per motor.
Its characteristics give it the best possible response at start-up (0 to
30 km/h in 2.8 seconds) and excellent in-gear acceleration (30-60 km/h
in 4 seconds), ensuring the driving enjoyment and safety that are
hallmarks of Peugeot.
The lithium-ion batteries provide immediate power and have a comfortable range of 120 km.
Each of the two battery packs supplying energy to the two respective
electric motors are fitted under the right and left rear seats, thereby
avoiding any reduction in the interior space and the storage space.
Furthermore, this location between the two front and rear wheels helps
with the centring of the vehicle weight and assists vehicle stability,
especially during braking.
The BB1 is based on a tubular chassis designed by Peugeot Motorcycles.
It includes all normal vehicle dynamic systems: electric power steering,
suspension (double-wishbone front and rear suspension), friction damper
spring assemblies offering driveability and safety levels worthy of the
Peugeot marque.
The body is made up of a very light carbon structure, designed to wrap
around the passenger compartment, all of which enables potential future
customisation and a possibility of a variety of vehicle shapes…
Finally, the vehicle weight does not exceed 600 kg, including the
batteries, enabling all its mechanical parts to be placed in their ideal
position, and ensuring optimal weight distribution.
Thanks to its electric propulsion, the BB1 is an environmentally
friendly vehicle par excellence and emits no pollutant emissions owing
to the fact that it consumes no fossil fuels.
At a standstill, the passenger compartment ventilation keeps operating
in daylight thanks to the solar panels placed on the roof of the
vehicle.
This enables two functions: pre-ventilation of the interior and the
trapping of pollutants and ultra-fine dust particles (μm), due to the
use of high-performance filters and activated carbon.
The BB1’s solar panels use cutting-edge technology, designed in partnership with the Ocean Vital foundation.
Flexible (enabling their usage on surfaces as complex as the dual-bubble
roof of the BB1), they provide a high yield of around 16% of energy
captured (a much higher performance than current systems) to power some
of the vehicle systems.
Two original creative images have been produced for the BB1 concept by the artist Michel Serviteur.
Portrayed around the driving position, they offer a new link with time and speed.
A clock brings the interior to life by linking a colour to each period
of the day; time goes by to the rhythm of the light to enhance the
feeling of wellbeing.
In addition, there is a graphic animation which could replace the
speedometer, finding its equilibrium at a steady speed but which moves
again when that speed is interrupted.
The name “BB1” isn’t the only reference to Peugeot’s history and the “Baby Peugeot” models of 1905 and 1912…
This ultra-compact, lightweight electric vehicle concept is also
something of a throwback to the Peugeot VLV… three hundred and seventy
seven of which were built between 1941 and 1945, meeting the needs of
users throughout the Second World War.
All this stands as proof that Peugeot has always been able to create and
adapt its mobility offers to a particular time and need.
New Amazing Mobile With Plus USB Technology
Its
an new technology mobile. What should we say is it a mobile or a usb
recognizer. It can be also used as a card reader. Good stuff.
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