Ipad

Ever wanted to know what your dog was doing all day without having to set up a complicated video camera system? People Power, a Palo Alto software company, has released a mobile app that can easily turn an old iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a security camera. The company's free app, Presence, makes it possible for users who have Wi-Fi to set up one Apple device as a video camera and another as a monitor. For instance, a dog owner could take an old iPhone, turn it into a camera and then watch the pooch on an iPad at work.

Re "iPads in school: toy or tool?," Column, April 28 As a 68-year-old man who reads your paper cover to cover every day, I have to say that Steve Lopez's skepticism about providing iPads to schoolchildren is misplaced. That I can now download books allows me to read more of them in a year then I had in the previous five before I had a tablet computer. If this device affects my old habits, I can't believe it won't help create more excitement for learning in young minds. Ed Sinderman Porter Ranch At Palms Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where I am the principal, we started purchasing iPads three years ago for the classroom.

It's a sunny day in San Francisco, with only a few minor earthquakes in Northern California serving as a prelude to Apple's much-anticipated product unveiling Wednesday.  Apple is no doubt hoping to shake the Earth itself with what most people believe is going to be a new iPad.  That could be the iPad 3, the iPad HD, the iPad 4G or some other clever name, but we think it's likely to be faster, have a much-improved display, and probably connect...

At Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills, every student has an iPad. That's 1,200 iPads, and if L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy can figure out how to pay for 660,000 more of them, every student in the district will have a tablet in the next few years. A good idea? "It's magical," declared a student at Valley Academy who loves his iPad. Maybe. But I've got lots of questions. Like many parents, my wife and I have tried to make sure our daughter reads real books and doesn't get addicted to everything digital.

News Corp.'s the Daily will expire on Dec. 15, the company announced Monday. The tablet -only periodical was the first of its kind, a newspaper that was published for the iPad alone initially. After its first year, it branched out, expanding to the Kindle Fire and other Android devices. Rupert Murdoch launched the Daily with much fanfare in February 2011. Its executive editor, Jesse Angelo, will become publisher of the New York Post, another News Corp. property. News Corp.

Wal-Mart has put various Apple products on sale, including the iPhone 5, marked down to $127. The retailer normally sells the smartphone for about $190, and the sale price is $72 less than the $199 price set by Apple and its carrier partners when buying with a contract. That's an incredible deal for consumers, but the sales' timing raises flags about how well the Apple smartphone is selling. The sale started Friday. PHOTOS: Apple, from Foxconn uprising to a Mini roll-out Typically, top-of-the-line smartphones start getting discounted if a new version of the device is close to rolling out. But in this case, the iPhone 5 is being marked down more than 35% less than three months after its release -- and in the middle of holiday shopping season.

SAN FRANCISCO - If only all purchases were this quick and easy. Jack Dorsey picked up a handful of artisan-brewed sodas at the Fizzary, a soda shop in San Francisco's Mission District. "I'm Jack," he told the shopkeeper behind the counter who charged the sodas to Dorsey's credit card by tapping on Dorsey's photograph that had popped up on an iPad behind the counter. In seconds, Dorsey's iPhone 5 vibrated in the pocket of his black leather jacket to let him know that the transaction was complete.

Lu Miao speaks very little English. He's never traveled outside of Asia. He's not a software engineer. But in a few short months, he became the founder of a successful software company selling apps in the United States and Europe. In less than half a year, Rye Studio has sold 1 million downloads of apps with traditional Chinese children's stories at 99 cents each for Apple Inc.'s iPad and iPhone. Lu bought a courtyard home in the city's tech hub, the Haidian district, and converted it into a playful office with a giant replica of a Michelangelo painting and a bamboo garden.

You've seen all the specs, but how does that small tablet you're eying actually stand up? We took this holiday shopping season's top three mini tablets and put them under the microscope to figure out which is the best. Here's what we found. Books: iPad mini If you're going to buy a tablet for reading, then turn to the iPad mini. The Apple tablet isn't amazingly better than its peers - they are all great for reading - but it has one advantage over the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD: You can read books offered by all the app stores, iBooks, Kindle, and Google Play.

Samsung scored a rare victory against rival Apple as a U.S. court judge on Monday lifted a ban on U.S. sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. As the judge was issuing the order, Samsung filed its own patent infringement lawsuit against Apple's iPhone 5, escalating the global legal wrangling between the two electronic giants. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh late Monday lifted the ban on sales of the tablet imposed in June. The judge imposed a temporary injunction prior to the August patent infringement trial that resulted in a $1 billion victory for Apple.

We speak very little French, so negotiating the Paris Métro was difficult until we thought to search for an iPad app. We entered our current location and where we wanted to go. The Paris Métro app listed the stations and transfers we needed to reach our destination. We'll never again travel without our iPad. It allowed us to feel more like a Parisian than a tourist. Paris Métro app, free for iPad and iPhone Paula Horn Nipomo, Calif.

Siri isn't just a pretty voice with the answers. It's also been recording and keeping all the questions users ask. Exactly what the voice assistant does with the data isn't clear, but Apple confirmed that it keeps users' questions for up to two years. Siri, which needs to be connected to the Internet to function, sends all of its users' queries to Apple. Apple revealed the information after Wired posted an article this week raising the question and highlighting the fact that the privacy statement for Siri wasn't very clear about how long that information is kept or what would be done with it. Technically Apple keeps Siri user data for six months, associating that data with the user.

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael -- the turtles, not the artists -- made their way onto smartphones and tablets for the first time Thursday, in a new app called " Rooftop Run . " The new video game is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and lets users control the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as they try to stop an invasion by their enemies, the Kraang. Similar to the game "Temple Run," "Rooftop Run" lets users scroll through a city for as long as they can fight off enemies, collecting power ups so they can attain the highest score possible.

Facebook is releasing an update to its iPhone and iPad apps Tuesday that will include many of the new features it has promised over the last several months. The social network said the apps will now feature the redesigned News Feed it announced in March. Facebook says the change will be most notable in its iPad app; the new design will emphasize photos more than it has in the past. The app update also adds a new feature called "Chat Heads" that Facebook introduced earlier this month when it announced Facebook Home, its new interface for Android smartphones.

Looks like the iPad is about to cause another casualty. The latest victim: Netbooks.  You remember those small, cuddly laptops launched just a few years ago, with lower power, less functionality and lower prices to match. They were kind of computing 'tweeners designed to fill the perceived gap between big, honkin' laptops and the new, gee-whiz smartphones. That was fine, for about a minute, according to a report from IHS iSuppli . Then along came the iPad in 2010, and that, as they say, was that.  PHOTOS: The top smartphones of 2013 According to the report, shipments of netbooks in 2013 will be mere 3.97 million, a nosedive of 72% from the 14.13 million shipped last year.

In its latest move against Apple, Samsung said Tuesday the Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet, a competitor to iPad mini, will hit stores in the U.S. this Thursday. The South Korean electronics giant said the small tablet will only be available in a Wi-Fi version and sell for $400. The model comes with 16 gigabytes of storage. Samsung originally announced the Galaxy Note 8.0 in February. The company said the tablet comes with an 8-inch, 1,280-by-800 pixel resolution screen that has a 189-pixel density.

Are you damaging your new iPad just by charging it? That seems to be what Apple is suggesting in response to questions about whether the third-generation iPad continues to charge even after the battery indicator reads 100%. Last week, DisplayMate Technologies reported discrepancies between the charge indicator and the power available. According to DisplayMate President Raymond Soneira, if you stop charging the iPad when the indicator reads 100%, you're really only about 90% charged . This means you probably won't get the maximum running time you'd expect from a fully charged device.

Google Maps is back on the iPhone after a nearly three-month hiatus. The map app became available in the Apple App Store late Wednesday night. However, the app offers a far different experience than what users had before Google Maps was removed from the iPhone as a pre-installed app when iOS 6 launched in September. The new Google Maps is similar to the version available for Android phones, and it offers a flurry of new features. Among them are Streetview and photos of the insides of some businesses, such as restaurants and bars.

Ever wanted to know what your dog was doing all day without having to set up a complicated video camera system? People Power, a Palo Alto software company, has released a mobile app that can easily turn an old iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a security camera. The company's free app, Presence, makes it possible for users who have Wi-Fi to set up one Apple device as a video camera and another as a monitor. For instance, a dog owner could take an old iPhone, turn it into a camera and then watch the pooch on an iPad at work.

Bandai's popular Tamagotchi pets are now available for Apple users. IPhone and iPad users can now take care of the popular digital pets just like they did on the small, egg-shaped devices sold by Bandai back in the 1990s. The app, formally called "Tamagotchi L.i.f.e.," can be downloaded from the Apple App Store. Bandai resurrected its Tamagotchi pets earlier this year when it launched the app for Android devices just before Valentine's Day. The Japanese company said that the Android version of the app has been downloaded more than 600,000 times.