iPhoneRoot.com
News tagged ‘ebook’
27 German Publishers Will Launch Their Own Open Textbook Platform
Following Apple’s move into education sphere with the introduction of the new “iBooks Author” and “iBooks 2.0” platform, new reports say that 27 textbook publishers in Germany will join together to combat Apple with their own digital textbook platform. The platform will be released in time for the beginning of the next school year.
Leave a commentApple Became The World's Top Semiconductor Consumer In 2011
Given the increasing popularity of Apple’s mobile devices and growing demand for smartphones, it is no surprise that Apple is raising its expenses on chips. The research firm Gartner that Apple is now the largest buyer of semiconductors in the world as measured on the basis of Design TAM, or total silicon content in all devices designed by Apple and its rivals. In 2011, Apple spent $17 billion on silicon parts, which accounts for 5.7% of total silicon buying.
iOS 5.1 beta 3 hints Apple is planning deep Facebook integration
iMore dug through the recently released third beta of iOS 5.1 and found evidence showing that Apple could add a deeper iPhone and iPad integration with Facebook into a future operating system update. In one screenshot shown for the iOS Contacts application, there is an option to enter a person's Facebook user name right below their Twitter account. The same deeper integration was provided for Twitter that was one of the most-touted features of iOS 5, which was publicly released last October.
Deep integration with the social networking service allows users to quickly post Web links from Safari or pictures saved in the Photos application to Twitter. Presumably, future iOS integration with Facebook would offer similar functionality, making it easier for users to share information with their friends on the popular website.
The pre-release build of iOS 5.1 also reportedly includes references to new iPad models that are named in the code such as "J1AP" and "J2AP." The references corroborate with rumored code-names of "J1" and "J2" that were first reported last November, when it was said that Apple was secretly working on two new iPad models.
Apple to Launch 'Garageband for e-books' on Thursday
This week, on Thursday, January 19, Apple plans to hold its education-related media event. Last week Apple sent out invitations for the event with a tagline stated that the company would make an "education announcement in the Big Apple." The multiple reports are claiming that the company could announce an initiative to help textbook makers produce interactive ebooks for the iPad, with some sources calling the initiative "Garageband for e-books."
ArsTechnica reported on Monday that its sources are claiming that Apple will release a simple app that makes e-book publishing as easy as recording a song in GarageBand. Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis, who worked on education projects at Apple before leaving to focus on interactive e-books, also confirms the rumors, because he dosn't believe that Apple would start releasing content to replace, for example, textbooks, the company is likely to provide content production tools, similar to its own Logic or Final Cut Pro software.
IDG: 91% Of IT And Business Professionals Use Their iPads At Work
Research firm IDG published a new survey showing that iPad is very popular tool among business and IT professionals. According to the global survey, which is available for , 91% of respondents "always" or "sometimes" use the iPad at work. Consumers and professionals both use the iPad for media consumption, and in the case of pros is chiefly work-related and text-based.
iOS Accessories At CES 2012: Wireless HDMI, Multi-docks, iNotebook, Kiosk
There are tons of accessories showed off at CES 2012, many of which were designed for iOS devices. Among the most interesting are multi-docs which offer various ways of charging several iOS devices simultaneously.
Apple sold 1.2M MacBook Airs over holidays, new models with Ivy Bridge loom
According to DigiTimes sources, Apple sold 1.2 million of its thin-and-light MacBook Air over the holiday buying season. These numbers are 200,000 more than Apple achieved in the September quarter. Thanks to MacBook Air sales, Apple became the only vendor that managed to maintain its total notebook shipments from the third quarter to the fourth of calendar 2011.
DigiTimes also claims that another strong performance for the MacBook Air comes as Apple is expected to refresh the ultraportable notebook line in the coming months with Intel's next-generation Ivy Bridge processors. Apple PC competitors are doing their best to replicate MacBook Air success, and going to launch their own notebooks based on the "Ultrabook" specification from Intel. Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba reportedly plan to price comparable models $50 to $100 below Apple's MacBook Air pricing.
Smartphones eat up 5.9 percent of the electronic gadget market
According to market research firm NPD Group, sales of general purpose smartphones are causing the market for standalone gadgets such as cameras, camcorders and GPS devices to shrink, falling 5.9 percent overall during the holiday season in the US.
Sales of camcorders dropped by 43 percent, digital picture frames by 38 percent, GPS navigation devices by 33 percent and both MP3 players and "point and shoot" cameras were down 21 percent, all apparent casualties of the general purpose smartphone. Sales of electronic devices that don't directly overlap in functionality with the smartphone fared better, with PC and TV sales down just 4 percent. Desktop PCs were down 2 percent overall, while notebook sales were down 5 percent.
Apple Has Agreed To Pay $5 million To Settle Multi-Touch Patent Dispute With Elan
According to Reuter’s , Taiwan-based company Elan Microelectronics has announced a settlement of a patent dispute with Apple related to multi-touch technology. Elan states that Apple has agreed to cross-license some patents and pay $5 million to avoid future disputes regarding said intellectual property.
Apple design chief Jonathan Ive awarded knighthood
The BBC reported on Friday that Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, has been named a Knight Commander of the British Empire in the U.K.'s 2012 New Year Honours list for "services to design and enterprise”. In 2005 he was awarded the title of Commander of the British Empire. Ive responded that he was "both humbled and sincerely grateful" by the commendation.
"I am keenly aware that I benefit from a wonderful tradition in the UK of designing and making," he said. "I discovered at an early age that all I've ever wanted to do is design."
Ive’s father was the first who inspired him to study design. Ive went on to study Industrial Design at Newcastle Polytechnic University. It was there that he first realized the potential of designing on the Mac.
"I discovered the Mac and felt I had a connection with the people who were making this product," he said. "I suddenly understood what a company was, or was supposed to be."
After graduating, Ive worked at the U.K. design agency Apple cooperated with. Then the company noted his talent and offered him a full-time position. During his 19 years at Apple, Ive and Steve Jobs became close friends and even "spiritual partners", according to Jobs' biography. While Jobs and Ive were close friends, Ive did admit to Isaacson that he felt Jobs had stolen some of his ideas.
"[Jobs] will go through a process of looking at my ideas and say, 'That's no good. That's not very good. I like that one,'" Ive told Isaacson in an interview. "And later I will be sitting in the audience and he will be talking about it as if it was his idea. I pay maniacal attention to where an idea comes from, and I even keep notebooks filled with my ideas. So it hurts when he takes credit for one of my designs."
Ivy Bridge Processors Will Be Released In Early April
Early this month the rumors suggested that Intel’s next-generation Ivy Bridge processors would launch in May. Theses mobile processors are expected to be used in Mac mini, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines.
Now DigiTimes that new Ivy Bridge processors may debut in early April, with both desktop and mobile processors launching around the same time.
Facebook Is Planning To Launch iPad App Update With Timeline Feature In Late January
Recently Facebook introduced a new functionality for profiles called Timeline, which, as shown on the company’s promotional video above, places all you interactions, photos, status updates and more on a timeline starting from the opening of your Facebook account.
Thunderbolt-supported PCs, Motherboards And Notebooks Will Be Released In April 2012
According to , Intel has informed its partners that the company is going to "fully release" Thunderbolt tecnhology in April of 2012. Reportedly, Intel plans to release Thunderbolt-supported notebooks, desktop PCs and motherboards at that time.
Apple's MacBook Air projected to reach sales of 1.6M per quarter
Analyst Mark Moskowitz with J.P. Morgan expects that MacBook Air sales will reach an average of 1.6 million units per quarter over the next 12 months. In the third quarter of calendar 2011, Apple sold 923,000 units of the MacBook Air, representing 838.6 percent year-over-year growth. Comparing with the previous quarter MacBook Air sales grew by 43.8 percent, outpacing total Mac unit growth of 17.1 percent.
China is now becoming a strong driver for growth of MacBook Air sales. Last quarter, MacBook Air units grew 339 percent year over year in China, versus 76.5 percent for the rest of the Mac lineup. Moreover, notebooks based on Intel's Ultrabook specification are highly unlikely to be a significant threat to the MacBook Air.
"In general, we think that Ultrabooks are highly-discretionary devices, and pricing on competitive offerings must fall below $800 before posing a viable threat to Apple's MacBook Air," he wrote in a note to investors. "In our view, Apple's first mover advantage and optimized feature set and form factor command a higher price that early adopters, productivity users, and Apple enthusiasts are willing to absorb."
Ivy Bridge to Bring Triple Display Support to MacBook Air
Intel intends to launch its mobile Ivy Bridge processors in April and May of next year. The report posted yesterday ttracts special attention to the fact that the Ivy Bridge platform, both mobile and desktop, will provide support up to three independent displays. Noteworthy, one of those displays will be an internal one.
While we're talking about graphics, as with the desktop Ivy Bridge processors, the mobile processors also support up to three independent displays, although one of these will be the built in display in the notebook, but hopefully we'll see notebooks with a DisplayPort connector as standard come next year.
The current Sandy Bridge platform supports only two independent displays. For example, the 13-inch MacBook Pro can only drive two external displays by turning off its internal display. More powerful MacBook Pro models can currently drive two external displays in addition to the internal one. But Ivy Bridge opens door to a direct support of three displays. Users of the MacBook Air will be able to connect to two external displays.