The thing is.. Wait did we really start this off with the thing is? Alright this blog will be about all things new and intense. I will cover everything from Technology, Pop culture, Video Games, Movies, Music, Politics and Sports. Thank you for reading. Please come back soon
When I heard that Facebook had brought my beloved Instagram; I was shocked, angry, sad, and finally at peace. Someone told me those are similar emotions felt when you lose a loved one. It was enough to open the floodgates to Android. I was happy for that move but to sell out to Facebook is taking a big plunge into the unknown. Everyone is aware of the privacy issues Facebook has. That is the reason I hardly use the social network.
Instagram is a model of what all programs hope to be. Loved and valuable. Instagram managed to attract not only a loyal but dare I say rabid fan base. The side effect of that success was the release of a plethora of clones on the AppStore harping for some of the spotlight. None however could manage to shine brighter than the original.
What I noticed right away was that Instagram had no advertisement. No pop-ups, not so much as a in app upgrade feature. The app it’s self was free to download. So, that’s millions of users on a nonmonetized app. Surely there must be a plan to cash in. It seems there was a plan brewing behind the curtain. One wonders how many meetings Instagram had with Facebook before papers were signed. Was the release of an Android app a stipulation of the deal or was it a show of good will? Did millions of downloads overnight jack up the asking price?
1 billion dollars!? That’s $1,000,000,000 for what can best be described as Flickr with filters mixed with Twitter. To be fair, to Facebook that’s pocket change. Never the less, Facebook does not spend money without a plan. Look for tight integration between Instagram and Facebook. Further integration means full out control by Zuck and company. That is a red flag for me. I’m one of those people that like to get into things before they become trends and ruined; I mean part of pop culture.
Instagram has lost that hip and exclusive feel for me. Not to mention my concerns with how Facebook will analyze my pictures. If you’re like me and want to jump ship but need a lifeboat for your pictures; rejoice for there is hope. Like the Holy Trinity there are 3. Three options to take your pictures with you. Copygr.am, InstaBackup and Instaport. The latter has gone down due to high traffic. I tried all three and Copygr.me had all my pictures, over 400 of them in my inbox within 5 minutes. Don’t frank out, you get a zip file. Even if you don’t leave Instagram, it’s good practice to backup your pictures before Facebook closes the API.
Apps that require iOS 5.1 tend to be Apple’s way of fighting the Jailbreak community. It’s not like the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S are not compatible with the new updated apps. If only there was a way around this limitation. Glad you asked. There is a way around it and it is pretty simple. The work around works for iPhoto, iMovie and so far all apps that have asked me to update to 5.1 Please note this method only works on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPad 2.
The steps to install 5.1 apps on your 5.0.1 device is as follows:
Close AppStore if you have it opened. Don’t forget to check the multitask bar as well for it.
Start up iFile (It’s a jailbreak app in Cydia)
Once in iFile go to /System/Library/CoreServices
Click SystemVersion.plist file
Click Property List Viewer
Click ProductVersion
Change 5.0.1 to 5.1
Click back and and then click Done
Respring your iOS device
Go to App Store and install your desired app.
After it is successfully installed put ProductVersion back to iOS 5.0.1
WeiPhone seems to think that Foxconn is sending iPad 3′s to the U.S. Funny thing is that the iPad 3 has not even been announced to the world yet. The rumors are flying all over the place but when is a rumor about an Apple product not.
The translation of the document says: “Our company started undertake a load of top-secured cargo. The owner has extreme requirements for the security. In order to prevent the cargo from being dragged on the airport ramp for too long, as well as shortening the time the cargo stay on the airport ramp, we hereby require XXXX to schedule all the XXX cargo planes from Feb. 26 to Mar. 9. to XXX slot.”
If the document is to be believed then shipments should hit stores by March 9th. The wonderful blog site 9 to 5 Mac said that Apple would take pre-orders of the iPad 3 this year and the entire iPad 2 line would be discontinued. If the rumors are true, iPad 3 will have Retina display, a Quad Core processor, a real cameras, same battery life and 4G.
Apple’s iPad pretty much owns the tablet market. It’s competitors really can not compare. Sorry competitors I have more bad news. iPad’s enterprise market share is growing. One wonders does more tablets mean less windows machines?
Good Technology a enterprise mobile services vendor reports that Apple’s iPad accounted for 96% of tablets activated at the companies that use the company’s services. The iPhone accounted for 53% of new phone activations. That is a very big percentage. It comes out to be about 71% of mobile enterprise devices iOS. That does not sound very good for Blackberry, Android and Windows device.
Remember: greenpois0n is not an unlock, it is a jailbreak! (If you are unsure of the difference, stop reading now & become friends with a revolutionary new website called Google.)
Download & extract greenpois0n from the .zip file, then launch greenpois0n.
Attach your iPhone, iPad or iPod to your computer & click ‘Jailbreak’.
Greenpois0n will automatically commence its DFU guide. If you know how to put your device into ‘DFU Mode,’ you can do this at your leisure; when done, greenpois0n will acknowledge a successful DFU operation.
Press ‘Jailbreak’ again (if necessary) and let greenpois0n do its thing! You will see wonderful lines of text scroll on your device’s screen to assure you that something is happening.
After a few magical seconds, greenpois0n will display a ‘Complete’ message. At this point, the greenpois0n injection is complete – just wait for your device to reboot automatically.
Once your device has finished rebooting, double-check that you have an active internet connection, then locate & press the ‘Loader’ icon on your device. This action will download the Cydia app and install it for you.
When Cydia has been installed successfully, your device needs to (& will automatically) reboot one final time.
I was able to catch up with the CEO of Line2 Peter Sisson. We had a in-depth conversation about the future of the VOIP app on all platforms. What is next for the company and how it compares to other companies our there with similar services.
Peter Sisson is a telecom geek disrupting mobile communications by using social, calendar, and location information to make calls more productive and lifestyle-friendly. Line2 is Peter’s 4th company. His last company, Teleo, was acquired by Microsoft in 2005.
Peter Sisson, CEO of Line2 (also known as Toktumi), is an entrepreneur and VoIP pioneer. He has been on the forefront of the Internet industry for 15 years, starting four companies and nurturing many others through advisory roles. He was named one of the top 10 “people to watch” by CNET, and won the Arthur Anderson Best Practices Award for Strategic Leadership with Wineshopper.com
CaseMate’s Tuxedo can hold your iPad without any cords holding it down. It is using a sticky pad. Once the pad gets dirty just wet it a little and reuse.
The idea for Pocket Body came about while getting to know, understand and observe how medical students, healthcare professionals, and the general public learn, communicate and visualize the complexities of the human body.
Our team’s background and experience stems from multimedia design and development for university schools of medicine, private medical companies and hospitals. With the emergence of the iOS, it was a nice next step for us to migrate from creating detailed 3D animations and web-based medical eLearning courseware for our healthcare clients, to publishing our own unique suite of mobile medical education apps.
How many developers worked on the app?
In addition to the core team of developers at the company’s headquarters in the Innovation and Business Centre, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Pocket Body has been co-developed by medical students for medical students, and this project has only been possible with the unique combination of exceptionally talented, and multidisciplinary team members.
Founder & creative director of 3D medical multimedia company eMedia, Mark Campbell is an experienced user-centered designer with a passion for interactive educational multimedia design, and design-lead innovation in medical education. Mark has developed Pocket Body together with his talented and eclectic team of medical practitioners and educators, software developers, 3D artists, pedagogical and instructional designers, as well as user interface designers.
Will the app be on other platforms?
One of our objectives for the New Year is to look into the benefits of developing for web and other mobile platforms.
What are the future plans for the app?
Our unique mix of pedagogy, medical expertise, software development and user-centered design works really well for us, as it allows us to build in the individual feedback we receive into our user-centered design and agile software development processes.
We are in a growth stage right now, and our major challenge is to continue to make advancements, while maintaining our creative dynamic and user-centered spirit. We also want to continue to work with our community of users in developing first-class medical education software…but these are nice challenges to have.
In our opinion the introduction of game-based learning, gamification techniques, and social learning technologies into the medical education sphere is where things are going. We want to be there too, as that’s where we see medical education moving towards in the coming years.
We love what we do and if we can still get the same satisfaction out of what we do in 3 years’ time, as a creative company, punching above our weight, building beautiful and meaningful medical education apps, then great!
What sets your app apart from the others out there?
We see ourselves as being different in that we co-develop with medical students and professionals for medical students and professionals. In the creation of Pocket Body, we deliberately set out to engage with our primary audience – the medical student. We worked with groups of medical students to show us how they currently learn anatomy and what resources they use (i.e. flash cards, study notes, highlighter pens, video, cadaver lab notes, online quizzes, as well as existing web and mobile apps.) We discussed the positive and negative aspects across each resource and wondered, “…how can we bring about something meaningful and beautiful, that will compliment these learning behaviors, and create a powerfully engaging learning experience using this new iOS technology?”
The validation process began in 2009 with our continued close relationships with local and US-based medical students and professionals, and has continued through the daily feedback we receive, enabling us to push out meaningful updates to our community of users worldwide. In 16 months, this community has benefited from nine major updates to our Pocket Body app, with 90% of these changes emanating from medical practitioners’ and students’ feedback and suggestions. With each update freely available, it’s a “win-win” for all concerned. Many of our new users hear about us through word-of-mouth from existing users who are pleased to see us responding to the community’s collective needs.
How did the company come together?
Pocket Anatomy (the Interactive Human Body), created in 2009 by eMedia Interactive Ltd, is a range of medical education software applications to assist medical students, healthcare professionals, and the general public in visualizing the complexities of the human body in a novel format. The first two products in this suite of medical education resources include “Pocket Heart” and “Pocket Body”.
Originally created to help anatomy and biology students study and understand the inner workings of the human body in a more fun and engaging way, these Pocket Anatomy learning tools are also popular amongst doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals as communications tools when meeting and explaining diagnoses and conditions to patients and their families.
Pocket Body is a fully searchable interactive atlas of the human anatomy, which allows the busy medical and nursing student or healthcare professional to visualise the human musculoskeletal system through the use of interactive high definition illustrations of the human body. This software features a fully anatomically accurate human character with nine layers of musculoskeletal content, enabling the user to navigate from the skin layer through the superficial to deep musculature, and on through to ligaments and the skeleton. In each layer, structures are pinned for identification and associated with each pin is additional concise relevant information including clinical notes. All of the information is presented in an interactive, mobile and accessible format which takes full use of the features of the device on which the app runs (iPhone, iPad or iTouch). This is a marked contrast with the two-dimensional (2D) printed pictures and diagrams commonly used in the teaching of advanced human anatomy today. Additional features allow the user to make learning notes as they progress through the learning content, and also utilize the built-in quizzes as a self-test capability to assist in their learning and exam preparation.
Pocket Body will assist medical and other health care students gain a deep understanding of human musculoskeletal anatomy and assist in their examination preparation. Also, by making comprehensive human musculoskeletal anatomy content available on demand it will act as a continuing anatomy resource throughout their degree programme, and as a reference on into the professional workplace.
CREATORS
Mark Campbell, founder and creative director of eMedia, on the Pocket Anatomy range: “We are delighted with the outcome of the Pocket Anatomy project to date – software that is being nicknamed the Google Earth of the Human Body by many of its users.
As medical students and educators continue to embrace new technologies in their teaching and learning practices, Pocket Anatomy will continue to push the boundaries in the use of new technologies for the purposes of medical education.
We chose to create the Pocket Anatomy range of medical education tools as we are passionate about the use of 3D graphics and high-definition illustrations in the teaching of human anatomy and biology. These apps enable users to absorb interactive educational content at their own leisure wherever they are. The revolution of interactive mobile content allows the student to learn at their own pace and in a more engaging and immersive manner than when accessing static 2D learning content. The information is always at their fingertips and they can also test themselves through built-in quizzes, which are both educational and fun.”
What can we expect next from your talented team?
The team at Pocket Anatomy are currently working on some new and exciting medical applications which we intend to launch starting in Spring 2012. Our community of Pocket Anatomy app users worldwide are incredibly important to us and we are really grateful for their continued support, feedback and suggestions that enable us to create, develop and continuously update our suite of apps to meet their needs and requirements.
Pro: The app does just what it says it will do. To the point,easy to use and reliable. The interface is clean and easy to use. Works very well with an Apple TV and mirroring feature of iOS 5.
Con: It would be nice to have a voice over or video for the graphics.
Cost: $30
Aye/Nay: This is a Aye. This program is going after a very niche market. Medical students and healthcare professionals. They state its for the general public to learn as well but in my option, it’s way too much information for non medical minded person. It’s good for Med Students and professional. $29 is worth it.
So I will be the first to admit when I make a mistake. It seems I was wrong when it comes to the multitasking apps bar on your iOS device. To be fair I am not the only one that has been wrong about this subject.
What I have always heard and have taught other people is that the apps on the multitasking bar are all running and slowing it down. They are using the device’s memory and killing the battery life just like Android. You should turn them all off.
This is 100% Wrong. While it may make you feel better to turn these off it does not however save or hurt battery life. The iOS multitasking bar does not display all running apps. It is not like the task manager you see on the PC. Instead it is a list of recently used apps. So you don’t have to worry about managing background tasks on iOS. When you press the home button, iOS will tell the app to quit. When it quits, it stops using CPU time and the battery. The memory the app was using is recovered. The Mail and Phone apps run at all times.
iOS apps 5 states of execution:
Not running – the app has been terminated or has not been launched.
Inactive – the app is open but not doing anything, receiving any data or sending any
Active – the app is in use
Background – the app is no longer on-screen but still running. Background Apps go the Suspended state in a few seconds. Unless it is coded to ask for a background task which will extend the time before it goes to a Suspended state. Navigation apps are one such app that is coded to do this. Some apps stay in the background forever until you kill it. There are five of these. They are:
Apps that play audio, TuneInRadio
Apps that track your location in the Background, such as GSP apps
Apps that listen for incoming VOIP calls, such as Talkatone & Skype
Newsstand apps
Apps that receive continuous updates from an external accessory in the Background such as docks with matching apps.
5. Suspended – the app is paused. This is when you switch from app to app. The app is still resident in memory but that is so it can resume more quickly when you go back to it. This state does not kill battery life and will be completely removed from memory over time or if the memory is needed
The multitasking bar always shows what apps were recently used apps regardless of what state the app is in and currently Active App (the one you are using) does not show up on the multitasking bar.
