Google has just released ‘Google Books’ app for iOS. The Google Books app offers access to over 2 million Google eBooks on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Take your favorite books with you on the go. The app is free and requires to sign in with your Google account. Google Books Features: Great Reading Experience – Change font, search within book, information about book – Night-reading mode – Offline reading mode ...
An iPad 2 could hit shelves as early as next year, according to at least one source. An Apple iPad 2 will go into production beginning in December – and hit shelves as soon as Q1 of 2011. That’s the news this week from Economic News Daily, an English-language Taiwanese paper. According to News Daily staff, the new iPad will include FaceTime functionality, fresh display tech, a pair of cameras – one forward-facing – and a USB port. ...
Remember that peppy aftermarket 256GB SSD upgrade from PhotoFast that easily smoked (on paper anyway) the SSD found in Apple’s latest MacBook Air? It’s been halted upon Apple’s request before it ever went on sale, similarly to those HyperMac batteries before it. 9to5Mac first reported the news based on a source close to the company and we just confirmed it directly with the PhotoFast GM2_SFV1_Air product manager. The risk of losing access to Apple’s product licensing program was just too grave a threat to ignore. So, enjoy your 160MBps max SSD transfer rate and 128GB top-end capacity MBA 11 owners, you’ll get your storage and 250MBps sequential read/write speed bumps only when Apple’s good and ready to provide it themselves — possibly sooner, we’re told, if PhotoFast is given the green light to start sales after Toshiba’s SSD modules (Apple’s MBA partner) are available for purchase.
Yesterday, Apple pushed out the much anticipated update to its mobile operating system – iOS 4.2. Although most of the headlines have focused on new functionality Apple has introduced, such as bringing folders and multi-tasking to the iPad, there’s a much more important reason why you should be considering updating your Apple iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Security. According to an Apple knowledgebase article, iOS 4.2 includes more than 40 security fixes designed to better protect iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users. ...
PC Magazine: The Beatles have finally given iTunes a ticket to ride, allowing their iconic music to be added to Apple’s catalog. But while the Fab Four might be the most notable iTunes holdout, they certainly aren’t the last. A dwindling number of artists are still resistant to joining Apple’s music download service. Searches on iTunes for AC/DC, Kid Rock, Tool, Garth Brooks, and Def Leppard will return disappointing results: karaoke and cover tracks, not material from the artists themselves. Reasons for non-compliance with Apple vary. ...
Todd Bishop, TechFlash: Not sure if this will factor into anyone’s purchasing decisions, but it looks like Windows Phone 7 is the smartphone for you — at least if you have a habit of leaving your smartphone unattended on a flaming grill. EZ Grill, a Bellevue-based disposable BBQ company, worked with Seattle-based social media agency Banyan Branch to pit a new HTC Surround, running the Microsoft operating system, against the Android G2 and iPhone 4 in a test of endurance on the grill. As you can see in the video above, Windows Phone won easily. ...
Apple has issued the latest update to its Mac OS X operating system, bringing Snow Leopard users up to Mac OS X 10.6.5. Enhancements include improved Microsoft Exchange reliability, and a variety of performance and stability improvements. But what’s probably most interesting to you is that the update also includes important security fixes. Well over 100 different vulnerabilities are reportedly patched by Mac OS X 10.6.5 – if you want to see the gory details (or at least, those details which Apple is prepared to make public) view their knowledgebase article. ...
Wall Street Journal: It looks like Steve Jobs may have something to be nervous about after all. Google Inc.’s Android platform has taken the lead in the U.S. smartphone market, according to several new reports by technology research firms. In the third quarter, devices with the Android operating system were installed in 44% of smartphones, while Apple Inc.’s iPhone came in second place with 23%, according to market research firm, NPD Group. RIM’s BlackBerry trailed behind in third place with 22%. One big caveat: NPD tracks consumer activity, but doesn’t measure corporate cellphone purchases. ...
Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin considered hiring Apple CEO Steve Jobs as the company’s first CEO, according to a new documentary. After interviewing a dozen unsuitable candidates during Google’s early years, Page and Brin went to meet Jobs, a personal “hero” of theirs. The pair then asked investor John Doerr, “Why can’t he be our CEO?” The anecdote comes from an episode on Page and Brin from the Bloomberg documentary series “Bloomberg Game Changers.” Earlier this month, the Bloomberg series, which looks at “today’s most influential leaders,” aired an episode on Jobs. ...
Software Magazine: Microsoft has launched the Apple version of its productivity suite, the Microsoft Office 2011. The package comes with a new version of Microsoft Outlook that has been specially built for Apple’s Mac. The suite supports those cloud based services Windows users have since the launch of Microsoft Office 2010 for this platform. The reason for launching Microsoft Office for a competitor’s operating system is simple: although the platform is completely different, there are lots of Mac users in this “Windows-centric” world that need to use Microsoft Office. There are also a lot of users who, although they use a Mac for every other task, they prefer to use Microsoft Office. ...