New iPad LTE plans

Inside the new iPad's 4G LTE mobile data: AT&T vs Verizon

Apple's newest iPad sports very fast 4G LTE data service, available on either AT&T or Verizon Wireless in the US. Here's how the two carriers stack up as LTE providers.

We performed a new series of tests on both the AT&T and Verizon models of the new iPad.

We didn't test the strength of radio connectivity between iPad and cellular towers, which is reflected in the "bars" of service reported by the device. Instead, we measured actual data throughput, providing a better indication of how well it will actually work on each carrier when you look up maps, browse the web or download or upload email.

Introducing 4G LTE

The new iPad is Apple's first device designed to connect to LTE networks, also referred to as "4G" to distinguish it from existing 3G technologies including Verizon's CDMA EV-DO and the 3GPP UMTS technology used by AT&T in the US.

The first generation of mobile networks were essentially voice-only analog (AMPS in the US), followed by a second generation of digital networks (CDMAOne and GSM) with rudimentary data features.

The 3G networks launched over the past decade initially began making it feasible to transmit data fast enough to comfortably support tasks such as web browsing. However, the exact definition of 3G or 4G is interpreted broadly enough to nearly be meaningless.

Up until late 2010, 4G was supposed to mean blazing fast 100Mbps data service using new carrier technologies and IP networking, just like computer networks and wireless WiFi.



Mobile carriers, however, wanted a new feature to sell smartphones, and pushed for "4G" to cover the significantly improved technologies they were in the process of building out. The ITU standards body relented and redefined "4G" to cover both the limited version of 4G LTE then being fleshed out as well as a variety of similar "3G+" standards, including HSPA+, which also delivered data service well in excess of the speeds commonly associated with 3G.



Verizon's leap from CDMA EV-DO to LTE

Verizon was the first national US carrier to implement LTE service, largely because it had the slowest 3G data network with no realistic potential to upgrade it. Qualcomm, which had developed the 2G CDMAOne and 3G CDMA EV-DO carrier technologies Verizon has historically used, had abandoned plans to build its own 4G replacement.

Instead, the chasm between Qualcomm's CDMA networks and the incompatible but more widely used GSM/UMTS technologies created by the 3GPP standards body was bridged by technology sharing that implemented carrier technologies originally developed by Qualcomm and improvements made by other technology companies.

The resulting 3GPP roadmap for GSM/UMTS standards outlined a series of steps that carriers could implement to bring significant, incremental improvements to their networks, working toward a 4G future. However, for legacy CDMA carriers such as Verizon, moving toward 3GPP standards would require a larger jump.

Internationally, other CDMA carriers have either bolted on UMTS/HSPA or LTE "overlays" that augmented their existing CDMA EV-DO service.

Outside of AT&T and Verizon in the US, Sprint hoped to beat its competitors to the market with competing WIMAX service, but has since announced plans to move toward LTE. T-Mobile has invested in HSPA+ upgrades but had no LTE rollout plans; it expected to be acquired by AT&T last year, and serve as an accelerant to help roll out that company's LTE strategy up until the government got involved and forced the transaction into failure.

Verizon's LTE performance

In our testing, Verizon's LTE network can be spectacularly fast, regularly reaching an astounding 40Mbps for downloads and up to 19Mbps for uploads. In the US, that's significantly faster than typical fast cable broadband speeds. But Verizon's LTE isn't always that fast. About ten percent of the time, LTE areas only delivered an AT&T 3G-esque 1.9Mbps to 2.7Mbps down, even while delivering (oddly enough) fast 10-14Mbps uploads. Occasionally, despite showing bars of LTE, we got poor service speeds.

In about a quarter of our tests, Verizon's LTE delivered what we'd describe as "Advanced 3G/4G" speeds between 5-10Mbps. However, most of the time, represented in 65 percent of our tests, Verizon's LTE delivered greater than 10Mbps download speeds, up to 40Mbps. These are typical WiFi speeds, very impressive for a mobile device. About 18.8 percent of the time, we got better than 20Mbps downloads on Verizon's LTE.

Despite usually delivering fast downloads, Verizon's LTE uploads were more of a mixed bag, ranging from an occasional slow 1Mbps rate to upload speeds between 3-9Mpbs about half of the time. And factoring in non-LTE service holes, we experienced slower than 5Mbps service around 37.7 percent of the time.

The biggest disappointment to Verizon users will be that as soon as you lose LTE service (which is only available in limited areas), data rates fall back into CDMA EV-DO territory, with a relatively plodding 0.1-1.3Mbps data rate for both uploads and downloads. That's the same you get from current Verizon iPhone models, and again is why Verizon worked the hardest to get LTE deployed first.

AT&T, LTE & 4G

In contrast to Verizon's big jump to LTE, existing GSM providers such as AT&T and T-Mobile have had the ability to incrementally improve their existing networks. While Verizon decided to jump to LTE directly, AT&T has added both incremental HSPA+ upgrades and has recently began building LTE as well in parallel, albeit being behind Verizon's LTE deployment.

AT&T, like T-Mobile, has also rebranded its HSPA+ service as "4G" in order to associate it with the faster data service of LTE. Both have the potential of reaching around 10-40Mbps, in excess of ten times faster than typical 1-1.5Mbps 3G EV-DO service. In our tests, AT&T's non-LTE "4G" service delivered a respectable 1.5 to 8Mbps, far above typical 3G but below the 9-40Mbps rates of AT&T's LTE.

The proportional breakdown of AT&T's mixed 4G and LTE service was nearly identical to Verizon's LTE: about ten percent of the time, AT&T's 4G areas delivered1.7Mbps to 2.5Mbps downloads, although uploads on those "4G" networks were much slower, effectively 3G speeds of 1-1.5Mbps. Across the board, AT&T fell below our baseline of 5Mbps 26.6 percent of the time, significantly less often than with Verizon.

In about a quarter of our tests, AT&T's 4G or LTE delivered those "Advanced 3G/4G" speeds between 5-10Mbps. However, most of the time, represented in 63 percent of our tests, AT&T's LTE delivered greater than 10Mbps down, up to the same 40Mbps hit by Verizon. When indicating LTE rather than 4G, AT&T's upload rates were also consistently faster than Verizon's, in the 10Mbps and up category. AT&T also reached above 20Mbps in 40 percent of our tests, nearly twice as often as Verizon.



AT&T vs Verizon in 4G & LTE

The bottom line: both AT&T and Verizon deliver very fast LTE downloads. In our tests, AT&T seemed to provide more consistent LTE upload speeds. Uploads matter if you're doing more than just browsing the web or downloading apps and movies. If you plan to do things like capture videos and email them to friends, you'll want the kind of upload speeds AT&T performed better at delivering consistently.

If you're located well within the currently quite limited LTE service areas of AT&T and Verizon, you'll enjoy really fast data speeds on either network. Unlike our previous testing of AT&T's early 3G network beginning in 2008, we found that even when the new iPad indicates a poor signal with just one or two bars, we were still able to download at very fast speeds (below). However, in many cases our Verizon model would indicate more bars, but deliver significantly slower LTE data service. It's possible Verizon's LTE network is handling more traffic, because its also newer than AT&T's, so this may change as AT&T signs up more LTE users.



If you plan to use your new iPad outside of areas covered by LTE, you'll have a different experience depending on the carrier you choose. While Verizon offers broader LTE service coverage spots, as soon as you leave the coverage area you're instantly back in 3G land, and slow EV-DO 3G (less than 1Mbps) at that.

If you break out AT&T's faster, more modern HSPA+ networks, which can deliver the same WiFi-like mobile speeds as LTE, the comparison between AT&T and Verizon's available "4G" networks tilt in favor of AT&T, as presented in the service maps of the Coverage app.

The first graphic below shows AT&T's (in blue) and Verizon's (in red) LTE network maps. The graphic below it adds all "4G" networks, allowing AT&T to get credit for its similarly performing, modern mobile networks.



With AT&T, as you leave LTE service areas you first get "4G," which ranges from very fast download speeds that feel like 4G (in that 5-10Mbps range) to service that feels more like very good 3G (1.5-5Mbps) down to the very rural speeds (less than 1Mbps) you'll find as you leave civilization.



However, while AT&T offered consistently faster LTE uploads than Verizon, when you enter "4G" on AT&T your downloads rapidly degrade to less than 1.5Mbps, which is hard to call 4G with a straight face.

In real world testing that involved reloading a long series of identical images in Mail, we found that despite slight differences in data throughput on each network, the effective and apparent speed of actual tasks seemed consistently identical when both models were operated in LTE service areas.

LTE drawbacks

While LTE is indeed very fast, it is not without its downsides. Apple seems to have solved the biggest issue with 4G on the new iPad: the idea that you can't have both LTE and battery life. The new iPad packs a huge battery and modern LTE chipsets that make its use very efficient, to the point where it wasn't an obvious battery hog.

The next big issue for LTE is that, while it's fast, carriers are not giving you any more data to run through. It's not a fire hose of data. It's more like a squirt gun: it shoots out data fast, but you also drain your tank quickly and have to refill at significant cost once you plough through your 2GB or so of data. If carriers really want to see adoption of LTE, they need to stop being so greedy about data limits. Offering ten times faster data at the same data limit is absurd.

AT&T is advertising its LTE service with spots that suggest people are greatly benefitted by getting Facebook updates and emails seconds before their peers. This is simply not true. LTE's biggest advantage will be when it allows you to inhale movies and download large apps and documents. You don't need faster data to get quick text updates. This is just stupid.

Verizon on the other hand has simply resurrected to its "we're bigger than AT&T" ad campaign, insisting that it has significantly more LTE service than its competitor. While that's technically true, AT&T has significantly more 4G service, and our tests show AT&T's LTE network seems to perform better on uploads (although its non-LTE 4G network does not).

Is it true that Verizon's 2-10Mbps LTE is really better than AT&T's 2-10Mbps 4G? No. So it's hard to see much honesty in such a simplistic comparison between the LTE coverage maps of Verizon and AT&T, particularly if you ignore AT&T's superior middle ground 4G service. Both networks have strengths and weaknesses that can't be boiled down into a best performer.

In fact, unless you plan to use your new iPad as a hot spot to serve fast (but limited data capacity) LTE service to your laptop and other devices (something only Verizon currently supports), it's hard to see a clear leader between the Verizon and AT&T models. Both are so constrained by their data plan limits that you might just be better off buying the WiFi model and saving the premium to help pay for a tethered data plan on your phone.

LTE outside North America

Apple currently only has agreements in place for LTE-equipped iPads on Verizon and AT&T, along with some Canadian carriers. European and Australian flavors of LTE aren't compatible with these new iPad versions.

Unfortunately, while the top three US carriers and most other significant carriers worldwide have settled upon LTE as the their common technology for future mobile networking, each carrier is using its own frequency bands, complicating the potential for using one device across different networks.

The upside is that Apple has also packed quad-band support for alternative 4G technologies into the new iPad, which should work on most international UMTS/HSPA+ providers, including those that support the very fast DC-HSDPA specification. These technologies can deliver the same top speeds up around 40Mbps we found with LTE providers in the US.

Microsoft Office for iPad

Microsoft Office for iPad: Why You'll Need It, How You'll Use It

A possible photo of Microsoft Office for iPad. Image: The Daily

Microsoft Office has been a desktop computer staple for decades, and now it looks like it might finally migrate to modern touchscreen tablets. But does Microsoft's mouse- and keyboard-dependent productivity software even belong on a tablet? And if it does make the transition to touch, how will we actually use it?

Yesterday, a report by staff of The Daily claimed that Microsoft Office for iPad apps are definitely in the works, and could be released "in the coming weeks." The story included photos and descriptions of a purported hands-on demo. Microsoft representatives were quick to shoot back both on Twitter and in an official statement stating The Daily had its facts wrong and that its reporters had not, in fact, seen an actual Microsoft product on the tablet.

Nonetheless, The Daily's Peter Ha later insisted that a working version of the app was demoed to the digital publication by a Microsoft employee. It's a he-said-she-said situation, but at least one key industry watcher feels Office for iPad makes sense.

"I can say that based on the products Microsoft currently has in the market, launching additional Office apps for Apple devices would be a logical extension of their existing strategy," Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps told Wired in an e-mail. Microsoft already has Mac and iOS products like Office for Mac, a note-taking app called OneNote, SkyDrive for cloud storage, and Lync, points out Rotman Epps.

Rumors that Microsoft would be bringing Office to the iPad have been circulating for a while, particularly since The Daily reported in late November that the suite would arrive in early 2012 at a $10 price point.

If what The Daily reported Tuesday is true, it's possible that Microsoft Office for iPad could land concurrent to — or even onstage with — Apple's first public iPad 3 demo, which is expected to be held the first week of March. It would certainly make for an interesting presentation, as Apple doesn't actively evangelize its Microsoft synergy. Microsoft will be demoing its Windows 8 OS consumer preview on Feb. 29 so the timing of an early March Office for iPad unveiling would seem to work: Microsoft's big platform-wide announcement wouldn't be upstaged by its smaller Apple announcement.

So let's assume Office is coming to the iPad. How precisely will you use it?

"You'll use it for content curation. And it's very unlikely you'll be using the iPad in native tablet touch mode," Sachin Dev Duggal, CEO of Nivio, told Wired. Nivio is a cloud platform that lets you access your desktop and its files — including Windows and Microsoft Office — with a touch-controlled mouse pointer as input. "In most cases, you'll have it docked into a screen or a keyboard," Dev Duggal said of the rumored Office app.

However, a second use case — passively browsing through documents — definitely lends itself to the iPad's simple touch-controlled data input. And don't underestimate the value of full document support. By loading native Office docs directly into Office, you ensure files render with proper formatting, a talent not always manifest in competitors like Documents to Go Premium. In this case, "The pure gesture-based control works great," Dev Duggal said. "It translates to a tablet experience."

OK, so Dev Duggal paints an interesting picture of how the app will be used, but, again, is there a desperate need for Office on the iPad? Many of us have been getting by just fine without it. Well, according to Resolve Market Research, 18 percent of those who decided not to purchase an iPad 2 did so strictly because it didn't come with Microsoft Office programs. That's not a number to balk at.

Dev Duggal thinks students and small businesses will be interested in Office for iPad. And there's also another prime user group: people who don't want to spend money on multiple devices. "If they can cross-utilize devices to also do productivity, thats a huge cost savings," Dev Duggal said.

Elaine Coleman of Resolve Market Research concurs with Dev Duggal. "Tablets are a critical dual-purpose device," Coleman told Wired, adding that close to 70 percent of personal tablet users also use their devices for business.

Indeed, the iPad has a growing role in the world of enterprise computing, with a large percent of Fortune 500 companies adopting the tablet (this was a touch point in Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent first-quarter earnings call). So, no doubt, the addition of Microsoft Office to the enterprise mix would be welcome.

But Microsoft has waited a long time to deliver this product — perhaps too long.

"Every day that Microsoft does not have Office apps for iPad, they lose potential sales to competitors," Rotman Epps said. Such competitors include: Apple's own iWork office suite; Quickoffice, an iPhone alternative for viewing, sharing and editing Microsoft Office documents; and SlideShark, an iPad-based PowerPoint platform.

Rotman Epps pointed out that these and a host of other productivity apps are all top performers in Apple's App Store. Indeed, Apple's Pages, Keynote and Numbers (in other words, the iWork suite) make up three of the top five spots in the Top Charts for paid Productivity apps in the App Store. And with OS X Mountain Lion's heavy iCloud integration, using Apple's iWork suite will make even more sense for users who own multiple Apple products.

Whether people who already use Office alternatives would switch to Microsoft-brand products is "hard to say for sure," says Coleman. "I think in the enterprise many still believe 'Office is King' and will come back."

Regardless, if Microsoft Office for iPad did make its debut onstage for the iPad 3 in a few weeks, it would be the first time the two tech giants teamed up at an Apple event in 15 years. Considering what happened last time, it would be a landmark occasion. For both companies.

3 Main Benefits of Developing iPhone Applications for Your Business

3 Main Benefits of AppzDev developing iPhone Applications for Your Business

There's been a sensation about Apple's iPhone recently, and much speculation as for to buy iPhone or not, its advantages and disadvantages, usefulness of developing iPhone applications and so on. Apple itself has recently begun an advertising campaign and a TV commercial featuring a dozen free and paid business apps with the tagline "Helping you run your small business one app at a time."

Why is it beneficial to have your own iPhone application developed by AppzDev?

1. iPhone applications give employees the opportunity to access information easily from anywhere where they have access to the internet. Every week even more businesses are realizing the benefits of mobile applications and web-based access. Besides increasing overall employee productivity, mobile applications boost efficiency and internal revenues by unifying communications with entire business structure.

There are two ways of using iPhone applications: they can be your business, or they can be made to help your business.

2. The iPhone market is still in the early stages and growing quickly, which makes it even more attractive for business owners. That is the reason why the popularity of iPhone applications within corporations is growing. Apple is trying to do its best to support business apps development, and the next version of iPhone software is announced to be released in June. It'll allow the developers to sell additional services within applications, and buyers – use these new features to create a better and more distinctive application.

Being an innovative first-generation device, iPhone captured hearts of a vast majority of people. Apple has reported that over five hundred million applications were downloaded and about a billion dollars was gained only in apps this year. Apple's counterparts, Google (Android), RIM (Blackberry), Microsoft (Windows Mobile), and Qualcomm (Palm) have announced launching app stores as well. Running application business is at the height of its fame.

3. An iPhone application is a product that can be used to promote your business or it can be sold as a consumer product. A mobile application is a good way both to produce and invest at the present time.

Contact Us for more information

Apple Sibling Rivalry: iPad's Toughest Competition in Q4 Was the iPhone

Apple Sibling Rivalry: iPad's Toughest Competition in Q4 Was the iPhone

Amazon's Kindle Fire has certainly proved a strong contender in the tablet market, but the iPad is still winning in that arena. For Apple's fourth quarter, though, the iPad's stiffest competition was actually its sibling, the iPhone.
In the last three months of 2011, Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads and iPad 2s, according to IHS. During that same period, Apple slipped from 64% of the global media market to 57%.
"Shipments of the iPad line fell short of IHS estimates in the fourth quarter as many loyal Apple customers devoted their dollars to shiny new alternatives," said Rhoda Alexander, IHS senior manager of tablet and monitor research. "However, the primary alternative wasn't the Kindle Fire—which debuted to solid sales in the fourth quarter—but Apple's own iPhone 4S smartphone. The rollout of the iPhone 4S in October generated intense competition for Apple purchasers' disposable income, doing more to limit iPad shipment growth than competition from the Kindle Fire and other media tablets."
Did you purchase a tablet or smartphone in late 2011? Which devices did you choose?

iPad Touchscreen Secrets

Time-Saving Touchscreen Secrets


Touchscreens can be quick and convenient, but frustrating if you're entering large amounts of text.  If you're one of the 22 million lucky people who got a new iPad for the holidays — or one of the 200 million people who already own an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad — here are my top tips for how to get the most out of your Apple touchscreen device in the least amount of time.


Baby Powder
If it's particularly humid, or you suffer from clammy hands, that moisture on your fingers makes for jumpy touch control. Sprinkle a little baby powder on your fingers, and you will suddenly have pinpoint accuracy and command of the cursor. Corn starch will also do the trick.

Video Scroll Control
You've got this perfect video moment stored on your phone — just 10 seconds within a five-minute video — that you want to share with a friend. You scroll too far forward, then too far back. What you need is finer control. Try this: touch the timeline at the top of the video screen, then slide your finger below the timeline. You should see the timeline expand.
Without lifting your finger, slide it to the right or left to scroll forward or back through the video at half speed. This also works with audio files in iTunes. (Note: this feature may not work if you are running an older version of IOS - Apple's mobile operating system).
Web and Contacts Scroll Control
Want to scroll up on a website? Just tap the top bar. Rather than swiping back through a bunch of images you've already seen, this move will jump you right back to the top. This trick works the same with your contacts: tap the top bar, and boom, from the z's to the a's in one motion.
Tap the Top Bar


Keyboard Shortcuts

Suppose you want to add a period to a sentence — a pretty common occurrence. You could do it the slow way: hit the number button, tap the period, and then tap the "abc" button to get back to typing. Or you could try the fast way: hit the space bar twice. This automatically adds a period and a space — and even capitalizes the next letter as you start a new sentence.
Another trick: don't worry about adding apostrophes. Type doesnt, Ill, Im and youre all without the punctuation, and your iPad or iPhone will automatically correct these words to read doesn't, I'll, I'm, and you're.


Press and Hold

Pressing and holding certain keys reveals all the options associated with that key. Touch the dollar sign ($) and hold; the keyboard will reveal other money symbols, like the yen (¥), the pound (£), and the euro (€).  Then just slide your finger to the option you want to select. Release your finger there to get your chosen character to appear on the screen.
Reveal Hidden Keys


Want an accent aigu (é)? Press and hold A, then slide to the exact character you want. Need a cedilla (ç)? Press and hold C. For an umlaut (ü), press and hold U… you get the idea. Pressing and holding also works with certain punctuation marks. To get that upside down question mark at the beginning of a Spanish question, for example, press and hold the regular question mark.
Pressing and holding even works for Internet addresses. When you're typing a web address in Safari, there's a special .com button. Hold it, and the keyboard will reveal other web address options: .net, .edu, .org, etc. And if your keyboard is set to a different country, options will appear for those domains as well, like .co, .uk, or .eu. This function works in email, too: hold down the dot  (period button) when typing an email address to reveal .com and a similar batch of alternate domain options.


The Slide
All of the tricks in this article are aimed at saving you time and motion. The goal: as few clicks and taps as possible. By sliding your finger instead of multiple taps, your motion can become more fluid. The most common usage is when you're typing on the regular letter keyboard, and you suddenly need a number or a symbol. The slow way takes 3 taps: number layout, the number, and then one more tap to take you back to letters. Now try The Slide instead; it's a bit like Press and Hold: tap the numbers button (123), but then — without lifting up your finger — slide it to the number or symbol you want, and release. This will give you the character you want, and return you to the letters keyboard automatically — officially, only one tap instead of three.

A cool feature for the iPad and gmail writing a message!

Nice gmail iPad feature, writing a message!

Do I need 3G/4G on my tablet?

Do I need 3G/4G on my tablet?

Most tablet manufacturers (except Amazon Kindle) offer either Wifi or Wifi plus 3G/4G options. Wifi access is available in most homes, offices as well as in most coffee shops worldwide generally for free or for a nominal fee. In my last 18 months of owning a tablet, there have been few days when I wished 3G was available on my tablet for few hours of long drive. You can read books, most magazines on flipboard and even email even without connectivity by caching part of these files before leaving the house.

With 3G/4G connectivity, your tablet can always be connected (subject to availability of 3G/4G connectivity from your mobile operator) to the Internet. However, unlike smartphones, tablets are not generally used on the go and so having always on connectivity just doesn't offer the same benefits for the cost incurred. So if you need 3G/4G connectivity there are other options besides owning a tablet with such a capability for lot lower price.

Getting a 3G/4G tablet will cost you over $600 for 2 years

Most tablets cost about $100 or more for including the 3G/4G options in addition to Wifi which is standard on most tablets. For most Android tablets, many mobile operators offer a discounted price for a 2 year contract. I looked at some of the tablets at T-Mobile and AT&T stores and saw that for an initial discount of about $200, you end up committing to an additional cost of $960 for T-Mobile, $840 for AT&T and $720 for Verizon Wireless. So the discount of $200-$300 upfront ends up costing you an additional $100 on the price of the tablet plus $500+ of extra cost for getting that 3G/4G connectivity which you could get much cheaper in other ways.

For Apple's iPad, no mobile operator offers any discount upfront but the tablet ends up costing $130 more plus you pay a minimum of $15/month (250MB) to AT&T or $20/month (1GB) to Sprint or $30/month to Verizon (2GB).

If you have a Wifi tablet and are not in the Wifi zone, there are two choices available for getting your tablet hooked up to the Internet.

How to get always on-connectivity on your tablet without buying 3G/4G tablet

• Get a mobile hotspot
• Get Tethering option on your smartphone

Get a mobile hotspot

This could actually get expensive as the data charges are similar to that of the tablet. However, this alternative is only beneficial if you have a need to connect your laptop to the Internet all the time for the same reason you need to connect your tablet.

Get Tethering option on your smartphone

This option, available on most Android, Blackberry and iPhone models, allows you to turn your smartphone into a mobile hotspot. With this option, you can have 5 devices including your tablet and laptop connect to the Internet. The good news is that this option can be turned on and off on most mobile networks in the US. Sprint charges only $10/mo extra for this option while other mobile operators including AT&T and Verizon charge $20/mo. The only negative of this option is the battery drain that your smartphone will experience.

3G/4G connectivity is generally not needed on most tablets. If needed, don't buy this from your mobile operator as it will set you back by $600 on a 2-year contract despite initial $200-$300 discount. If you need to connect your tablet to the Internet all the time, look at using your existing mobile hotspot or just add tethering option on your smartphone which will save you money and won't lock you into a contract.

Find my Friends iPhone app

This is a very cool app: Find My Friends
Your friends mark the spot.


Meet up with friends at an outdoor concert. Keep track of the family during a day on the ski slopes. Or see when your out-of-town guest has finally made it past baggage claim. The Find My Friends app is a great way to share your location with people who are important to you.* Friends who share their location with you appear on a map so you can quickly see where they are and what they're up to. And since Find My Friends works with Contacts and Maps, you can do things like find the quickest route to a surprise party — and avoid running into the birthday girl — all at once.


Temporary Sharing Privacy Settings Parental Restrictions
Friends for a day.


With Find My Friends, you can choose to temporarily share your location with a group of people. It's perfect for a weekend camping trip or a day at the amusement park. Share locations for a couple of hours — or a couple of weeks. When the trip is over, the sharing ends, too.
Seek (and hide).


With Find My Friends, you make the rules. A notification appears when you get a new friend request. If you give your friends permission, they can see you. Want a little privacy? Go off the grid with the flip of a switch.


Keep them safe.
Parental restrictions help you manage how your children use Find My Friends. Controls are quick and easy to set up and require a password to override your settings. That way your kids can have fun — and you can make sure they stay safe.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/find-my-friends/id466122094?mt=8

How times are changing

One-Year-Old Tries to Work Magazine Like an iPad

The Apple iPad. So easy to use, a child can do it. A magazine? Well, that proves to be more of a challenge -- at least for one very gadget-savvy baby girl.

A video surfaced by CNET shows an adorable one-year-old working an iPad faster than most of us can think. But when the same techno-whiz kid is handed a magazine, the child of the iPhone age is lost.

The video was posted by French father Jean-Louis Costanza, who has seen the future for his daughter: She thinks a magazine is a broken iPad. In the clip, the adorable child is traded an iPad for a magazine.

The techno-baby patiently taps the printed page and pinches it as if it were a touch screen. But the magazine is nothing more than a useless piece of broken tech. Glossy photos of fashion models? Pages of text? What good are they if they aren't an app?

Somewhere, Steve Jobs is laughing. Or, as dad Costanza put it, "Steve Jobs has coded a part of her OS."

iPhoto 9.2 Update Released

Apple released iPhoto 9.2 on Wednesday, an update to the company’s consumer photo management and manipulation software that adds support for iCloud and iOS 5, including iCloud’s Photo Stream feature. The update also includes support for new gestures, new navigation features, and a few bug fixes.


iPhoto ‘11


With Photo Stream, when you take a photo on an iCloud-enabled device, it will be pushed to all of your iOS devices, your Mac, and/or your PC. Photo Stream keeps the last 1,000 pictures you took, and users can grab any image from the Stream and save them or otherwise manipulate them.
Apple’s patch notes:
iPhoto 9.2 supports compatibility with iCloud and iOS 5. 


This update also addresses minor stability, performance and compatibility issues, including:

• Left and right swipe gestures can now be used to navigate between photos in Magnify (1-up) view
• Previously imported photos are now displayed in a separate section of the Import window
• Book/calendar themes and card categories can now be selected using a pop-up menu in the carousel view
• Resolves an issue that could cause some pages of books to print incorrectly
• Rebuilding a library now correctly preserves saved slideshows and books
• The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto ‘11.

The update is a 376.3MB download in Software Update, and you can see it if you have iLife ‘11 on your Mac and once you’ve updated to OS X 10.7.2 (Lion), which was also released on Wednesday.


You can also download a 357.17MB standalone installer from Apple’s download site.

Can an iPhone 3GS be upgraded to iOS5? What about 3G,4,and iPad?

The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 5, is here and we gave it — and the 200-plus new features it brings — a thorough trial run. Here's what you should know about it and the upgrade process.

Can my device handle iOS 5?

According to Apple, you should be able to run iOS 5 on an iPhone 3GS, an iPhone 4, an iPhone 4S (which will ship with the new operating system), a third-generation iPod Touch, a fourth-generation iPod Touch, an iPad or iPad 2. This means that folks with older iPod Touch devices, the original iPhone, or the iPhone 3G are officially out of luck.

But unofficially? I think that those who are using an iPhone 3GS should think twice about upgrading their devices to iOS 5. While functional and usable, the new operating system definitely feels a bit sluggish on the iPhone 3GS — especially in comparison to how it runs on an iPhone 4.

What makes iOS 5 so much better than older versions of iOS?

Apple proudly proclaims that iOS 5 brings over 200 new features to supported devices — but what the heck does that mean?

Well, for starters it means that you'll be getting a totally revamped notifications system, an improved lock screen, Twitter integration, multitasking gestures, over-the-air software updates, a souped-up Safari app, a new messaging service and more. Of course, not all of the individual features will make your jaw drop — in fact, most probably won't — but the combination of them should, because it is essentially one of the most compelling mobile operating system available today.

Here are some of the most important new features to keep in mind while debating whether to upgrade your device to iOS 5:

The iOS Notifications Center

The notification system in iOS 5 is one of the most significant features to be added to Apple's mobile operating system since iOS 4. It's a well-designed and perfectly integrated scheme of notifications, alerts, and popups which revolve around one central drop-down pane — which Apple has dubbed the Notification Center.

New emails, text messages, multimedia messages, reminders, Game Center notifications, mail alerts, Facebook notifications, Twitter notifications and any other sort of items which could normally trigger a push notification can find their way into the Notification Center. They'll be called to your attention on your iOS lock screen, via a regular pop up alert, or with a small non-intrusive banner which briefly flashes across the top of your screen — depending on your preference.

An improved lock screen

The iOS lock screen now provides a lot more information and functionality than ever before. It now lets you see detailed alerts — thanks to the new notifications system — and allows you to access apps directly by swiping across the screen. This way you'll be able to manage specific app alerts and notifications easily.

Twitter integration

iOS 5 has full Twitter integration. This means that you can tweet straight from Safari, Photo or just about any other app. All you need to do is log in with your regular Twitter credentials once and let iOS prompt you to download the official Twitter app. Once that's installed, you'll be presented with new buttons in the appropriate places.

Upgraded Camera and Photo apps

The Camera and Photo apps have received a quite an upgrade in iOS 5. There's now a pinch-to-zoom feature that you can use while taking a picture, the ability to turn a volume button as a shutter button  and a lock screen shortcut to the Camera app — meaning that you can snap a photo without needing to enter a passcode.

Oh, and as far as the Photo app goes? There are now some basic image-editing features built right in. You can enhance colors, remove red eyes, or crop images right on the spot — without having to open up a third-party app. 

iMessage

iMessage is basically an iOS-only messaging client which allows you to send text, photos, videos, contacts and group broadcasts to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users. It basically is a lot like BlackBerry Messenger and will show delivery receipts, read receipts, even IM-style typing indicators.

But as a bonus, the messages — which are securely encrypted — will be pushed to all your devices over Wi-Fi or 3G. This means that you can start a conversation on your iPhone and switch over to your iPad to continue things there without missing a word.

Upgraded Safari app

The lil' ol' Safari app has grown up quite a bit with iOS 5. The mobile browser now features an Instapaper-style Reading List feature which allows you to mark and sync articles for later reading, something called Reader which will format articles to be easier on the eyes, and private browsing for — ahem — the things that you don't want to be saved to your browser history.

What other features are there?

As I mentioned before, iOS 5 has over 200 new features. I elaborated on some of the key ones above, but there are definitely plenty of others that you should know about such as:

• Newsstand: This feature is supposed to act as a direct line to magazines, newspapers and other media. It allows for background downloads of all those things and places them into something that resembles the iBooks app.
• Reminders: This little feature is basically a central to-do list which will keep you organized. As it's location aware, it can even remind you of events based on where you are.
• Dictionary: The entire iOS can now use the Dictionary feature. This means you can check on your word choice from any app.
• Keyboard: The on-screen keyboard will now split into two parts on the iPad in order to make life easier for those who type with their thumbs.
• Game Center: The iOS Game Center now has photos, the ability to compare rank and scores against your friends, a way to see friends of friends, recommended friends and game recommendations. There will now also be turn-based games in iOS, playable on multiple devices.
• Wi-Fi sync to iTunes: Just what it sounds like. You can sync your device to iTunes over Wi-Fi. No more wires, folks! Oh, and your iOS device will back itself up before it syncs. So you'll be backed up every day.
• AirPlay mirroring: You can now mirror your iPad 2 right to your television — wirelessly via AppleTV.
• Multitasking gestures: Swiping across your iPad's screen with four or five fingers will allow you to switch between apps.
• Over-the-air software updates: Your iOS device can now update directly over the air. And instead of having to re-download an entire operating system, you're only downloading final updates — the changes.

What do I need to do before upgrading my device to iOS 5?

Before you try upgrading your device to iOS 5, you need to download iTunes 10.5. After you've taken care of that, you should really consider backing up your device — just in case something goes wrong.

All you need to do in order to back up an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch is connect it to your computer, open up iTunes, right-click the gadget in the "Devices" menu, and select the "Backup" option. The software will take care of the rest. Once the backup process is complete, feel free to tap the "Check for Updates" button to get the iOS 5 download started. iTunes will walk you through the rest of the upgrade process.