Mac App Store

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Apple has released a new Mac App Store app named Apple Configurator which allows businesses and educational institutions to more easily and massively deploy and manage iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.You can sync and manage up to 30 devices at a time including updating the OS, managing applications, profiles, backups, and more. Even if you have a large family with many iOS devices (or you work as a developer or blogger who has to test a ton of personal devices), Configurator can make your life a lot easier than iTunes ever did.

Apple Configurator can be used by larger organizations and businesses to set up new devices, install enterprise apps, and enroll each device with a Mobile Device Management solution for remote management by an IT administrator. It is perfect for the classroom or student lab where devices need to be quickly refreshed and kept up to date with the correct settings, approved policies, apps and data. Apple Configurator can also be used to personalize devices with data and documents for specific users.

I spent a little bit of time today playing around with Apple Configurator and the many iPhones, iPod touches, and iPadsI have laying around the office. It's a free download from the Mac App Store, so it's a no brainer for any administrator, from enterprise to education to home, but it could still use some work. While the main implementation is nice and pretty easy to navigate through, when you get to installing profiles, a few things could be tweaked to make for a better administration experience.

I see this being an effortless tool for schools to use in conjunction with syncing carts. You'll be able to easily sync textbooks to devices based on any other classification you'd like to use. You also have the ability to assign users and only copy files to specific devices as well, or as a group.

This should make it easy for educational institutions to group grades or different classrooms together and install the same device backup on every device at the same time. If you add a new device you can simply restore it from a backup of a device from that group.

For larger businesses and any company that needs to have some pretty heavy permissions and profiles installed, it's a great start but could still use a bit of refining as well as a few more options. For small businesses and education purposes, and even home use, Configurator will make for a nice and easy way to get content to end users quicker and more efficiently.

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Zynga Just Bought Omgpop For 200 Million

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Looks like OMGPOP, the company behind the overnight sensation Draw Something, will end up at Zynga, after all. The game maker had been talking to several suitors over the last few weeks. But as TechCrunch reported earlier, it has been in serious discussions with Mark Pincus and company for the past few days.

Now Zynga has scheduled a call for a "news announcement" for 3 pm ET. I'm going to go out on a short limb and assume it's to formally acknowledge that they have bought the company.

My sources tell me the purchase price will be in the neighborhood of 200 million, perhaps a bit higher. The company had raised around 16 million over the past five years.

(UPDATE: No limb necessary. It's a done deal, according to people with firsthand knowledge. Here's more detail on the price: 180 million, plus another 30 million or so in employee-retention payments, I'm told. Don't know about cash/stock split.)

No comment from Zynga. I haven't heard back from OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter.

Zynga will get a New York-based team of about 40 people, and a series of games that OMGPOP has produced over the past few years. But the obvious target here is Draw Something, a sort-of social Pictionary game played on iPhones and Android handsets.

The game is astonishingly popular, and the iPhone app sits atop the iTunes "top paid" and "top free" lists, which is very unusual. Even more unusual: It is also the top-grossing app at iTunes, based in large part on in-app purchases made by players. People familiar with the company tell me it has recently been netting around 250,000 a day from the game -- that's "after" Apple takes its 30 percent cut.

Zynga is a Facebook games powerhouse, and has been steadily acquiring smaller companies with hits on their hands. Two years ago, it paid 53 million in cash and stock for Newtoy, the company behind Words With Friends. OMGPOP has played with Facebook games itself, but while Draw Something is Facebook's "most popular" game, it's not really a Facebook game at all. Intead, users log in with their Facebook credentials, but play the game on standalone apps.

Draw Something's astonishing success may have made it tempting for the OMGPOP folks and their backers to consider taking a large funding round and keep going on their own, a la Rovio and Angry Birds. On the other hand, just a few months ago, OMGPOP had been thinking about raising money under vastly different circumstances -- "things did not look awesome," says one investor -- and then Draw Something hit, out of nowhere.

"No one had any idea that this would take off, and no one knows why it did," says another OMGPOP backer. Now no one has to figure it out -- they've taken all the risk off the table.

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You Have An iPhone

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By avi90

Ever need to take a decent amount of files with you but you didn't have a portable drive or numerous thumb drive? Do you have an iPhone? If so you can use your iPhone as a portable hard drive and take your files where ever you go comfortably and without having to lug around an extra device

Step 1

Now there are a few different methods to converting your iPhone into a storage device. The two most basic routes to go include:

1. Applications designed for this in Apple's App Store

2. Third Party Software which you can download online

Within each category are free and paid for programs and apps which you will be able to use.

Step 2

First off, are the Apps that turn your iPhone into storage devices. Here are some common ones

oDiscover: is currently the only free App to do this. It includes a viewer, and transfer support for Mac, Windows and Linux based system completely wirelessly. This App also allows iPhone to iPhone data transfer.

oAir Sharing Pro: Does this as well in addition to being able to Email and Print files wirelessly from your iPhone. It also allows the ability to view compressed and zipped files without the need to unzip them. However this is not free and will set you back 9.99.

oBriefcase: is also another wireless storage device that offers much of the same capabilities as the two apps above but for 4.99. Some notable capabilities are the ability to view sound files and transfers supporting SFTP and SSH. It also has a Lite version which is free but with some limitations. This App does not support PC transfer without some technical experience however.

Step 3

The other form are third party software for independent companies. Most of these programs are free but you will find some you will have to pay for. Here's some of the most common TPS to install on your computer.

oiPhoneBrowser

oDiskAid

oiPhoneDriver

oPhoneView

They aren't wireless transfers but it'll get the job done nonetheless.

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How To Set Up And Send Email On Your New iPad

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Once you've got your new iPad and it's all set up, you'll want to add your email accounts to it. Reading and responding to email from an iPad is a great experience on its own. Whether you've got iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, Hotmail, Yahoo! or another type of mail, or no mail account at all yet, it'll only take you a few minutes to get all set up.

SETTING UP A FREE ICLOUD MAIL ACCOUNT

If you don't have a mail account yet, you'll need to set one up in order start emailing as well as do things like buying things from the App Store with an iTunes ID.

Apple allows you to create an iCloud account for free that comes with your own @me.com email address. If you're not sure how to do this, you can check out our guide below to set up your account before proceeding.

* How to set up a free iCloud account

SETTING UP AN EXISTING EMAIL ACCOUNT

If you've already got an email address, odds are it's compatible with iPad. iOS supports the following email types natively -

* iCloud
* Microsoft Exchange
* Gmail
* Yahoo
* Aol
* Hotmail
* MobileMe (will be converted completely to iCloud this summer)

If you are already using iCloud to sync everything else and have already signed in under iCloud, odds are your mail account is already configured for you. Just pop into the Mail app to confirm this.

Everyone else can follow these steps to configure existing email accounts -

* Go into SETTINGS on your iPad.
* Now tap on MAIL, CONTACTS, CALENDARS.
* Tap ADD ACCOUNT under Accounts.
* Click on the type of email account you have. For this example, I'll use Gmail.
* If you've got another type of email account than the options listed, you can click "Other". You may need some additional settings from your IT administrator or from your email account provider in order to finish configuration.
* Fill out the fields your iPad will prompt you for including name, email, password, and description. Your description can be whatever you want to nickname your account.
* Your iPad will when verify your account. From here you may have some different sync options depending on your account type. As you can see, I can sync mail, calendars, and notes. I can tick off items I don't want to sync with my iPad. Since I use iCloud for my calendars and notes, I'll just turn off calendar and notes syncing for Gmail.
* Tap SAVE in the upper right hand corner and you're done.

You should now be able to go back to your homescreen and tap the Mail icon. Upon first launch, it may take your iPad a few minutes to bring down all of your folders and messages.

HOW TO SEND AN EMAIL

* Tap on your Mail app to launch it.
* In the upper right hand corner you'll see a pen and paper icon. Tap it.
* This will open a new email. You can either type in an email address or type the name of the contact you'd like to email from your address book.
* Fill out the subject and email body and tap send in the upper right hand corner and your message will be on its way.

That's really all there is to it. If you'd like more tips on using email on your iPad, check out the links below.

Additional resources:

* How to add a custom mail signature to your iPhone or iPad
* How to mark multiple emails as read on iPhone or iPad
* Even more email tips

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Smartphone How To Add And Manage Contacts On Your New iPad

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Once you have your new iPad all set up, you're going to want to get your contacts sorted out so you can email, iMessage, FaceTime, Skype, and otherwise stay in touch with the people that matter the most to you.

HOW TO SYNC YOUR CLOUD CONTACTS TO YOUR IPAD

When you set up a cloud-based email account, be it iCloud, Gmail, Hotmail, Exchange, etc. all your contacts will be synced over as well. Everything that you have online and on your other devices, like your smartphone, or on the Web, will just show up, and will stay in sync no matter where you make changes.

* How to set up and send email on your new iPad

HOW TO ADD A CONTACT ON YOUR IPAD

* Open your CONTACTS app from your homescreen.
* On the left page at the bottom right, you'll see a "+" sign. Tap on it to add a contact.
* From here you can start inputting info about your contact. Fill out all the fields necessary and then tap DONE in the upper right hand corner.

HOW TO EDIT OR DELETE A CONTACT ON YOUR IPAD

* Find the contact you'd like to delete and select it.
* On the right hand page at the bottom you'll see an EDIT button. Tap it.
* If you're editing the contact, just make the changes you need to and tap DONE in the upper right hand corner when you're finished.
* If you're deleting someone entirely you can just scroll all the way down and you will see a DELETE CONTACT button. Tap it and it will ask you to confirm that you'd like to delete that contact. Tap DELETE again to confirm.

That's all there is to it. Contacts will automatically integrate with Mail and other default apps so you don't have to type in email addresses or phone numbers. Just type the contact name and it should pull just exactly the right information, as long as it's in your contacts. And if you're synced with iCloud, ActiveSync, or any other type of cloud service for contacts, your changes will also be reflected on any other iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch you have set up as well.

Additional resources:

* The new iPad - everything you need to know
* iPad email help and discussion forum
* Even more iPad tips

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Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Wwdc iOS 6 Announced

With the news of the newly added MacBook Pro and Air, Apple has given details of the latest OS coming. We have the details of what iOS 6 will hold.

There are a slew of newly updated applications and features that will come with Apple's latest iOS 6. Lets first start off with Siri. As rumored, Siri will finally be available for the iPad, now you can ask Siri about the weather, local destinations and other questions that are on the top of your mind right on your iPad. Also, a new feature called Eyes Free will allow car manufactures to install a button to a car that will alert Siri while on the road, this will allow you to not even look at your iPhone while driving to your destination.

Also, as rumored, Apple will finally add integration to Facebook. This will allow easier access to send and receive notifications on today's preferred social media website. While also allowing the use of sharing apps right on the iPhone and iPad. While Safari is also given an update to read web pages offline or to easily upload images right on Safari.

FaceTime will finally work over cellular data and the phone application has a newly added feature. This feature is called Do Not Disturb. The feature will allow users to reject a phone call and choose to immediately send a message to alert the person that you're busy at the moment. Now when you get a call during an important meeting, you can alert a friend or love one that you got the call but can't talk.

Source: Apple WWDC

The Apple Tv Is Explicitly Marketed To The Modern Hdtv

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Consumer Reports doesn't seem to like Apple. I don't know if it's because Cupertino engineers consistently fall to the laws of physics, or simply because the ratings agency needs better ratings. Either way, though, you can always count on a front-page shocker whenever those Consumer Reports "testers" get their hands on a new Apple device.

But forget about heatgate for a minute: This time, Consumer Reports is getting snippy with the Apple TV!

9to5Mac directed us towards the new review, which has, for some reason, been released "ahead of its full comprehensive testing." (If you stopped reading right there, I can't blame you). Penned (or panned, I suppose) by James K. Willcox, the review is reasonably informative in some parts, and clueless in others. It's as if Willcox has little idea what to expect from an Apple product. In bold below are some of his (mostly bizarre) complaints:

THERE ARE NO LEGACY VIDEO CONNECTIONS FOR USE WITH OLDER TVS WITHOUT AN HDMI INPUT.

Why should there be? Last year's model didn't have any, either. Did you think Apple was going to go "backwards"? The Apple TV is explicitly marketed to the modern HDTV owner.

UNFORTUNATELY, YOU CAN'T REORDER THE [MENU] CHOICES TO BRING FAVORITES CLOSER TO THE TOP OF THE SCREEN, AND YOU CAN'T REMOVE SELDOM- OR NEVER-USED ICONS FROM THE INTERFACE.

Remember, this is an Apple product. The company's famous for its "my way or the highway" approach. They're never going to sacrifice general usability for specific customization.

I WAS A BIT SURPRISED THAT SIRI VOICE CONTROL STILL HASN'T MADE ITS WAY TO APPLE TV.

You were? Really? Not even the new iPad offers Siri. Plus, you know, it's supposed to be one of the biggest selling-points of Apple's upcoming "actual" TV.

I FOUND THE APPLE REMOTE A BIT TOO SMALL FOR MY LARGER FINGERS WHEN I HAD TO ENTER TEXT ON THE VIRTUAL KEYPAD

There's an app for that.

THERE ARE NO SD CARD PORTS OR USB SLOTS FOR ADDING MEMORY

This nonsense again? Adding memory? It's "never" gonna happen.

BUT THE BIGGEST ISSUE WE HAVE WITH NEW APPLE TV IS THE SAME ONE WE HAD WITH THE PREVIOUS VERSION-THAT COMPARED WITH ITS COMPETITORS, IT STILL HAS LESS CONTENT FROM THIRD-PARTY SERVICES.

Finally, a valid(ish) complaint. But, while the Apple TV might feature fewer pay-wall providers than other solutions (Roku, Boxee, etc.) do, it's still got plenty to offer. And Apple's already in negotiations to shore up the gap. It's only a matter of time before Apple TV users get HBO Go and Hulu Plus subscriptions added to the mix. And blame for most such absences should certainly go both ways.

Okay, yes, Willcox had a fair amount of praise for the new Apple TV, too. He calls it a "no-brainer" for those already embedded in the iOS ecosystem, and he praises its 1080p picture, easy-to-navigate menu, and tight iCloud/iTunes integration. I just find it endlessly frustrating when folks review Apple kit without appreciating the history and design (both physical and philosophical) behind the company's products.

I can't take Consumer Reports seriously anymore. But that's been a long time coming, and it isn't just because of the brand's unreasonable double standard attitude when comparing Apple to every other company in tech. Like Willcox' review shows, Consumer Reports just isn't specialized enough in any one area to provide truly good advice.

But I guess that's what "we're" here for.

*

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Consumer Reports Has Crazy Issues With Apple TV, Clearly Doesn't 'Get' Apple is a story by AppAdvice.com

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