Apple released a new iTunes U app for iPhone/iPad as part of its educational event on Jan 19. iTunes U is a free app that allows you to access the educational audio/video podcast of iTunes Store on your iDevices. With the release of iTunes U app, Apple is transforming iTunes U into an educational platform allowing teachers to include course syllabus, handouts, assignments and other materials. As part of the launch, there are already over 100 courses optimized for iDevices from universities such as Yale, Duke, MIT, Stanford etc.
If you have a computational question, WolframAlpha will definitely give a faster and more comprehensive answer than web search results. WolframAlpha has a vast knowledge engine covers wide range of domains such as Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Chemistry, Materials, Engineering, Astronomy, Medicine, Geography, Finance etc. WolframAlpha is a Universal app for iPhone/iPad at $2.99, and requires an Internet connection for the app to work.
When you open a PDF web link under mobile Safari, the PDF document will be displayed for browsing from within Safari. It might be useful to save the PDF into iBooks for read-later such as when there is lesser Internet connection or to take advantage of the better PDF reader in iBooks.
When the PDF document is fully loaded, tap anywhere on the document to bring out the gray color toolbar bar. On the right end of the toolbar there will be buttons for “Open in iBooks” or “Open In…”.
Tap “Open in iBooks” to save the PDF into iBooks. Safari will save a copy of the PDF into iBooks and switch over to iBooks app. If the PDF size is big, it might take a moment for Safari to switch to iBooks. Tap on the “Open In…” button to choose a different app to manage the PDF document.
It is a new year, and a new App of the Week. We just can not recommend any other app this week. Hot on the heels of winning iPad App of the Year in App Store Rewind 2011 by Apple editorial, the $4.99 photo app is now free for a limited period on the App Store.
Snapseed is developed by Nik Software, a software company specialized in professional photo editing and effects. Snapseed brings pro-level photo editing to the iOS by giving you fine editing controls. Snapseed is a universal app, and we must admit it is tough to work on photos on iPhone’s small screen. But Snapseed shines when you use it on iPad.
Words With Friends is social gaming at its best. Similar to an electronic version of Scrabble, you can play Words With Friends against a friend from your contact list, find a friend or play from a random opponent from its more than 20 million users. There is an HD version for iPad and ads supported free versions as well.
More and more musicians are using iPad as their tool for production and recording. Many are churning out entire songs solely on iPad. If you have doubt if iPad can produce anything decent, check out the videos.
Path has just released version 2, with a revamped interface that is about sharing all aspect of your life, photos, vides, message, songs, location and even sleep. Called it a micro blogging app or life journal app, Path 2 is what the app should have been in the first place. The famous 50 person limit is increased to 150 in Path 2. Yes there is still a limit to the number of people you can share things in the app. And the app now sync your Path pots with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr.
We have covered the built-in Emoji support in OS X Lion. Turns out that iOS 5 has the same Emoji characters for you when text is just not enough. In order to enter Emoji characters in iOS 5, you need to add the Emoji keyboard.
From Settings app, go to General > Keyboard > International Keyboards > Add New Keyboard. Look for “Emoji” and tap on it to add the keyboard.
Once a keyboard is added, it can be accessed from the globe icon on the keyboard during text editing. Each tap on the globe icon will toggle among the added keyboards from the Settings app.