Digital Tech News - Digital Technology & Consumer Electronics

Apple iBooks 2 for iPad introduced

Apple is about to lighten the load for students after announcing iBooks 2 for iPad today.  The company will be launching new digital iBooks textbooks from education services companies like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson that are said to be dynamic, engaging and interactive.  Most iBooks textbooks will cost $14.99 or less, and you know that many students will be enthusiastic about the interactive learning possibilities offered by iBooks 2.  In addition, Apple announced the new iBooks Author authoring tool is available today for free, allowing anyone with a Mac to create iBooks textbooks.

Apple Mac OS X Lion Features Mac App Store, Launchpad, and Mission Control

Though it will not be available until summer 2011, Apple offered a sneak peek of its new Mac OS X Lion operating system which takes some inspiration from popular iPad software innovations. Lion brings Apps to the Mac via the Mac App Store, where users will be able to discover, install and automatically update desktop apps. OS X Lion's new Launchpad feature simplifies the organization of Apps on a Mac computer, while Apple's new Mission Control feature offers a new way to navigate and view everything that is running on your Mac. You might be happy to know that the Mac App Store will be available for Snow Leopard within 90 days.

New Apple iLife ’11 Upgrades iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand

Today Apple introduced iLife ’11 with a few major upgrades including iPhoto ’11 which gets a whole new look featuring full screen modes for Faces, Places and Events, iMovie ’11 which now includes loads of new video editing and soundtrack features for making your own movie trailers, and GarageBand ’11 which introduces new Flex Time and Groove Matching functions. The Apple iLife ’11 suite of "Digital Life" applications will be free with every new Mac, and it will sell for $49 as an upgrade for existing users.

RIM Releases New BlackBerry 6 OS Preview Video

At WES 2010, Research In Motion (RIM) showed off Blackberry 6, the latest update to its Blackberry smartphone software, in a slick video set to the track "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas. It looks like the Blackberry Storm and the next wave of Blackberry touchscreen phones will finally get a faster and more advanced user interface to challenge iPhone, Android smartphones, and the upcoming Windows 7 phones.

The new BlackBerry 6 operating system teaser video below shows a cover flow-like music search, and a WebKit-based browser, and some other goodies to come from the updated OS.

Sprint and Verizon Wireless Release webOS 1.4 Update for Palm Pre and Pixi Smart Phones

Sprint and Verizon Wireless customers who own a Palm Pre or Palm Pix are now able to update their smart phones to Palm webOS 1.4 automatically, or by using the Updates app on the phone. Palm's blog has described a few of the highlights of their webOS 1.4 update below, and you can watch the video here for more more details and features.

The ability to capture, edit, and share video: Not only can you easily shoot video footage from your Palm webOS phone, but you can also make quick edits and upload your footage to YouTube or Facebook (or send them via email or MMS) with just a couple of taps. See the video capabilities in action in the video below.

Get more done faster: The Calendar, Phone, Messaging, and Email apps have all been enhanced with new features to simplify common tasks (many based on feedback from our customers). For example, in the Calendar app, you can now dial a number that appears in the subject of an appointment. In the Email app, you can now sort by date, sender, and subject. In the Phone app, the Call log offers more options to easily connect to a contact (such as via SMS). And there are some new shortcuts for zipping from one app to another (for example, moving from a chat view to a phone call with that person). You¹ll also see improved performance in these apps.

Enhanced notifications: The LED in the gesture area now lights up and pulses if you have a notification (even when the screen is off). You can also customize notification sounds in Messaging, Email (on an account-by-account basis), and Calendar. And there are new notification sounds in the ringtones library to give your more customization options for your alert.

Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard Goes on Sale August 28

Apple's long awaited Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard is set to go on sale Friday, August 28, but you can head over to Apple’s online store and pre-order yours now. What about pricing you ask? Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard for $29, while the Snow Leopard Family Pack, a single household, five-user license, will be available for $49.

Tiger users with an Intel-based Mac can get a Mac Box Set that includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09 for $169, or the Family Pack for of $229.

New Windows Phone OS Demo Video

The Inquirer were given an exclusive walk through of the final version of Microsoft's new Windows Phone mobile operating system, and the video below shows it running on HTC's Touch Diamond2 smartphone. The Windows Phone OS was previously known as Windows Mobile 6.5, and here it's looking a lot like the UI on Microsoft's Zune HD portable media player.

A few of the goodies seen in the demo video include Microsoft's new 24-bit menu icons for accessing all of the Windows Phone applications, the apps Market Place for Windows Phone, My Phone synchronization features and My Phone PC client software features. Apparently the Windows Phone OS will be available around Christmas time.

Microsoft Office 2010 Demo Tour Videos

Microsoft’s big announcement today at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans focused on the new cloud-based Microsoft Office 2010 and related products that will be available in the first half of 2010, with free web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote 2010 set to go head-to-head with Google’s browser-based Apps and Google's Chrome operating system next year. Microsoft Office 2010 apps can be synced across PCs, mobile phones, and web browsers, and the Office Web applications will be available through Windows Live for free!

Now sit back and watch these Microsoft Office 2010 demo tour videos below:

iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update Now Available to Download

Apple has released the new iPhone OS 3.0 software update which is free for current iPhone owners, while iPod Touch users must pay $9.95 to download iPhone 3.0.

Here are just a few of the new or improved features in the update:

• Cut, Copy & Paste

• Landscape Keyboard

• MMS

• Spotlight Search

• Peer-to-peer games

• Stereo Bluetooth

• Voice Memos

• Improved Calendar

• Buy Movies, TV Shows, and Audiobooks via Wi-Fi

Follow the these instructions to download the iPhone OS 3.0 software update:

Step 1 - Make sure you are using iTunes 8. Connect your iPhone to your computer.

Step 2 - When iTunes opens, select your iPhone under Devices in the Source List on the left.

Step 3 - In the iPhone Summary pane, click Check for Update.

Step 4 - Click Download and Install. Do not disconnect your iPhone until the update has finished. 

Apple Previews iPhone OS 3.0 Software Features

 
Ahead of the official iPhone OS 3.0 software update release for iPhone and iPod Touch this summer, Apple previewed some new features and also announced the immediate availability of the iPhone OS 3.0 beta software and updated SDK for registered developers. Perhaps Apple has been sensing all the excitement surrounding the upcoming Palm Pre smartphone from Sprint and are hoping to show iPhone customers that the iPhone OS 3.0 update is up to the challenge.

There's nothing exceptionally groundbreaking here, but iPhone 3g and iPod Touch users will be happy to know that Apple has over 100 new features on the way, including cut, copy and paste, MMS, landscape view for Mail, Text and Notes, stereo Bluetooth, syncing Notes to the Mac and PC, shake to shuffle, parental controls for TV shows, movies and apps from the App Store, and automatic login at Wi-Fi hot spots. You can also expect a new Voice Memo app, expanded search capability for all key iPhone apps, and Spotlight search for the iPhone or iPod touch. Sorry, no background apps or multitasking capabilities in this update. iPhone OS 3.0 will be free for iPhone owners, while iPod touch users will have to pay-up $9.95 for the software update.