iPad

Comparing the best online photo storage options from Flickr, Google+, 500px, Dropbox, Amazon, Instagram, Facebook, and more! We've talked on numerous occasions about how great of camera you have included with your iPhone and have taken a look at some great photography apps to accompany it, but once you take all those photos and edit them to perfection, where are you going to store them? You can store them locally on various devices and hard drives, but what about in the cloud? Other than Photo Stream, what are other cloud storage options for all those memories you're accumulating? Facebook, Instagram, Twitpic, and other non-options Before we jump into the various great options out there, let's first discuss the fact that posting to Facebook, Instagram, Twipic, and any other little photo sharing service is not good enough. It may be easy to think "oh, I posted that to Facebook, so if anything happens, I know I can always retrieve my photo from there." Well, yes, as long as you don't cancel your account or do something that gets you banned, your photos are there, but even though Facebook has a "high resolution" option, it's not actually full resolution. The max size Facebook will save your photos is 2048px along the longest side. A photo taken with an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 is larger than this. The quality of your images saved on services such as Instagram, Twitpic, and other "little" sharing services is even worse. You should not consider these as good options for storing photos. So if Facebook and Instagram aren't good choices, then what are? Between Flickr, 500px, Dropbox, Google+, and Amazon Cloud Drive, you're sure to find a great option to meet your needs. Flickr Flickr just updated with an enticing new overhaul that includes 1TB of free storage. Yes, 1 terabyte. For free. Flickr also features a gorgeous new interface and an established community of users. In addition to just storing your photos, you can also publicly share them and join groups and discussions. If you're serious about photography or simply just looking for a place to save your images, Flickr is an excellent option and completely free (with upgrade options). Flickr Flickr for iPhone - Download now 500px 500px is a unique choice in that, in addition to being a place to store photos, you also have the option to sell your photos in the 500px market. It's also a social network where you can follow specific users and like and comment on their work. 500px does have more of a "professional" vibe that markets towards quality photography, so if you identify yourself as a photographer, 500px will likely be a great fit. A free account allows 20 uploads per week, and accounts with unlimited uploading begin at $25/year. 500px 500px for iPhone and iPad - Download now Google+ Although Google+ is primarily a social network, it also offers a solid option for photo storage. With the Google+ app, you can even choose to automatically upload your photos from your iPhone to Google+ so that you don't even have to remember to do it yourself. However, when uploading from your iPhone, Google+ will store them at "Standard size" which is a max of 2048 pixels on the longest side. If you want to store full size images, you must upload from your desktop. Full size uploads count against your Google Drive storage quota which starts at 15 GB with a free account. Paid accounts begin at $2.49/mo for 25 GB, but may be changing in the coming weeks. Google+ Google Drive Google+ for iPhone and iPad - Download now Dropbox If you're not into the social integration associated with Flickr, 500px, and Google+, Dropbox is another excellent choice for storing your photos. It's not a social network, but strictly a storage service; however, if you do wish to share your photos, you can share a link to your folders and Dropbox will nicely display them for you. You can also set up the iPhone and iPad app to automatically upload your photos when you launch the Dropbox app. A free Dropbox account includes

Ahead of the All Star game in New York in July, MLB has released a new game into the App Store; MLB Home Run Derby. I love Baseball, despite being British, so as soon as I saw this in the App Store I had to take a look. It's a free download, and bases itself solely around one of the fun-to-watch extras of the All Star weekend, the Home Run Derby. So, a perfect casual game for the Baseball fan? Let's find out. I'll start with the best part. The graphics are really good. My first thought was that it looks very similar to the gameday view in the main MLB At Bat application. There's only one stadium to play in, Citi Field the host for the All Star game, and it looks fantastic. With this being the Home Run Derby, you only have to worry about one thing -- hitting it out of the park. There are two different control methods, a drag and release to aim and swing, or aim with your left hand and tap to swing with your right. Home Run Derby has two different game modes, arcade and The Derby. Arcade mode is playable as many times as you like, and is done against a one minute time limit. You have a series of targets around the ground to aim for to increase your score, and the further you hit the ball the more points you get. Simple. Points means prizes, in the form of coins that are useable in the game to buy certain things with. The Derby follows the run of the real thing, so 10 outs and you're done. There's no time limit, you just keep going until you're all out of chances. To win, you have to progress through two rounds to get to the final. That's the good stuff. It's a fun little game to play, and if you hit a bigger home run that 457ft, then you've topped my best so far. The bad stuff is the in-app purchases. Sadly, the overriding feeling is that the game is designed around the purchases, and not the other way around. The first example; you get three 'tickets' to play the Home Run Derby. Once these are gone, it's a matter of hours before the next ticket arrives. You can make this quicker, and get more tickets, by paying. The in-game currency can be won, but you have to do well in the Home Run Derby several times before you have enough to really buy anything. The green notes aren't won in the arcade mode. Another example; You start out with one batter. More batters means more tickets to The Derby, and that means paying for them. Again, you either have to play and do well a lot over some time, or stump up the cash. You can improve your batters performance by way of a purchase, but you have to also purchase an additional slot to add this performance boost too. So, a double purchase. Whether it's your real money or your in-game currency, there is far too much emphasis on having to buy things to progress and ultimately get more out of the game. I'm happy enough slugging away in arcade mode personally, but it's sad that a fun little game feels so held back by the freemium model. More worrying too is that the App Store listing says "download free for a limited time only." If you think you might want this, I strongly recommend grabbing it right now while it's free. As a paid download I think I'd have a hard time recommending this. If the in-app purchases are overhauled, then it could be a different story. The Good Excellent graphics Simple, easy to pick up controls Authentic players, stadium and rules The Bad Too much emphasis on in-app purchases tarnishes the experience Glitches from time to time where menus stay visible over gameplay Apparent limited time offer on free download considering the level of in-app purchases The Bottom Line MLB Home Run Derby is a freemium game done wrong. Instead of building a game where in-app purchases boost progress, too often it feels like not paying up hurts. Three goes at the main Derby mode just isn't enough when it takes so long for another ticket to appear to play again. Thankfully, the Arcade mode isn't so constrained and is plenty of fun on its own to play. I like it though, really I do. I just don'

The Zite app for iPad has been updated today, to Version 2.3. Zite is one of the leading news magazines apps for the iPad and learns from your interactions and tailors the content for you as you go along using it. I’ve seen many apps that claim to do this sort of thing, but Zite is by far the most effective at it. This latest update is focused on further improving the app’s recommendation engine and tweaking the UI to make it even easier to use and to find the best content more quickly. Here are the new features listed for the 2.3 update: · We’ve made huge improvements to our recommendation engine to ensure that the stories we deliver are a good match for your interests.· Articles that you’ve read before will be greyed out (synced across all your devices).· We’ve enhanced some articles with pull quotes. You can see an example of the new greyed out...Read the whole entry... »        Related StoriesPrice Drops: Flickr Studio for iPad Free Today OnlyBest Free iPad App of the Week: Google+Notable New iPad Apps: MLB.com Home Run Derby 

There are reasons why the sales of the iPad have increased in the past couple of years. They offer consumers a number of fantastic features, are fun to use, and can make life a lot easier. To make sure your iPad is being used as it should be, you have to learn all you can about the device. Read the following tips to make yourself a fully informed iPad user. Get the most out of this modern device. Streaming, gaming, or music can cause battery life to deplete faster. You can change the brightness on your screen to do this. You probably won’t even miss using the brightest setting. Watch the amount of money you are putting out for iPad applications. There are many, many helpful apps and it is easy to go overboard. Make sure you monitor the amount of money you spend with your iPad. Be aware of any apps that constantly run on your device. Most of the time, an application can remain open while you surf the Internet or attend to other business. Click your Home button twice to get the view of all apps that are open. Any applications running at the time will be shown at the screen’s bottom in a bar. After you have a chance to look through everything, simply swipe down and the bar will go away. Did you accidentally start a noisy app? Mute the volume quick by pressing and then holding your volume down button. Do this until you can’t hear anything. If you are using iOS 4.3 or later, it is possible to make the toggle switch near the volume control mute your iPad. It’s simple to turn off notifications about joining Wi-Fi networks. You will see the choice that asks if you want to join networks. Choose this and all those invitations will stop. Iphone Charger If you want to charge your iPad as quickly as possible, do not use an iPhone charger. The iPad uses 10 watts, while the iPhone uses 5 watts. If you use your iPhone charger for your iPad, it will take forever to charge. Instead, just use the charger that came with the iPad. Use shortcuts to make sending messages a breeze. Just tap your space bar two times as you type a sentence, and a period and space will appear at the end. You don’t have to do it manually this way. Do you use Google calender? Would you like to incorporate it into your iPad calender? In the Mail tab, go to contacts, then calenders. You will see an option that lets you Add An Account. Tap the Other option that comes up. You will see an icon that says Add CalDAV Account. Tap this to enter your Google information. Then, get out of the settings app and tap the calender app. You should see what you need. Open new pages by using a new tab to enable you to keep multiple pages open at once. When you find a website in Safari, hold your finger on the link. A menu will appear. You can open your links in new tabs when the pop-up menu shows. Are you annoyed or distracted by the constant battery life percentage displayed on your iPad’s screen? If so, then it’s possible to turn this off, and it’s quite simple. To turn off, simply enter the Settings menu. Look under General to find Usage. When you’re here, the battery percentage display can easily be turned off. Do you wish it were easier to access your Internet bookmarks? Within the iPad you can, simply by enabling the bookmarks bar. Search out Safari within the Settings menu. Change the Always Show Bookmarks to On and you’re done. Establish FaceTime telephone numbers and email addresses. Your iPad default sets your FaceTime to include your initial email address, but you can set it up for more. Go to the settings of your iPad and customize from there. Copy and pasting is another great feature that the iPad offers. Tap on the section of text that you want to reproduce and choose the select function. Press again to highlight the text, and then press Copy. To paste the text, tap, [...]

Highly respected tech industry analyst Michael Gartenberg has reportedly left his previous employer, Gartner, for a position on Apple's marketing team. Forbes' Connie Guglielmo writes: Gartenberg didn’t immediately reply to a voicemail message left at his office at Apple asking him to talk about his new role for the Cupertino, California-based company. He is working on the marketing team under Apple’s global marketing chief Phil Schiller, according to sources. Gartenberg is terrific. He and Apple are lucky to have each other. Here's hoping Gartenberg's fresh set of eyes, and tremendous industry savvy, help Apple do an even better job than they're already doing, given the increasing competition. Congratulations, both. Source: Forbes

It is well known that Apple is pushing hard to be a staple in every classroom in America. Educators can order iPads in bulk for a reduced rate. Digital textbooks are flooding the iBook Store on a daily basis. Even iTunes University is a hot commodity for iOS users. Logitech is one of those companies with an ear to the ground and they know how prevalent the iPad is becoming in the education arena. Today, the company is announcing the upcoming launch of the first iPad keyboard designed specifically for the classroom setting. “Schools are increasingly purchasing iPads for use in the classroom,” said Mike Culver, vice president and general manager of mobility at Logitech. “While tablets are enabling new ways of teaching and testing, there’s a challenge when a teacher needs to simultaneously pair multiple iPads with multiple wireless Bluetooth keyboards. We developed the Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad to specifically solve this problem, so students can now simply plug it in and start typing.” The keyboard is made from a spill-resistant material with keys that were tested to withstand more than five million strokes. It also features some of the familiar iPad shortcuts, like Siri connection and app switching, plus an integrated Home button for quickly returning to the Home screen. The Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad with Lightning connector will be available in August of 2013 for a retail price of only $59.99. By October of 2013, the model with 30-pin connector will be available for the same price. You can pre-order from the company’s website today. » Related posts: Logitech Unveils Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad mini Logitech’s New iPad Keyboard Features Cool Backlighting and Hand Sensors Logitech Announces New FabricSkin Keyboard Folio

Speck Case for iPad Via Zazzle.com Although Apple CEO Tim Cook told the nation that the company had plans to manufacture one of its existing Mac lines in the U.S. last December, there has not been any official information regarding which line or where. During Tuesday’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Cook shed some light on that issue. According to AllThingsD, Cook told the Senate Subcommittee that Apple will be making Macs in Texas. “We’re investing $100 million to build a Mac product line here in the U.S.,” Cook said. “The product will be assembled in Texas, include components made in Illinois and Florida, and rely on equipment produced in Kentucky and Michigan.” This is great news for Texans specifically and the U.S. in general. We need more companies to work their way back into the U.S. for manufacturing as part of the effort to improve the economy. Will Apple ever make iPads in the U.S.? In my opinion, no. In December of 2012, around the same time that Cook revealed the move to the U.S. for Mac manufacturing, he also told NBC that the problem with making products in the U.S. is not about money, but skills. He pointed out that the U.S. was never in the electronics manufacturing business so there is not a workforce capable of handling production of such devices. “It is not an issue of bringing it back to the country,” he said. “But getting it started.” Foxconn, one of Apple’s major suppliers, does operate some plants in Texas, which has been handling much of the company’s hardware production and assembly. If Foxconn could hire and train workers to deal with the delicacies and intricacies of putting together mobile devices in the U.S., it is possible for iPads to receive the “Made in America” stamp. However, that would be a costly and timely endeavor. It is more likely that making Macs in the U.S. is nothing more than a PR move on Apples part. They want to look good for consumers, so they will throw us a bone every once in a while to show good faith. That’s fine. Hundreds of people with have jobs thanks to Apple’s desire to keep us happy. » Related posts: Apple to Start Moving Production to U.S. in 2013 Apple To Manufacture Mac Mini in U.S. as First American Made Device Apple Supplier Foxconn Boasts Record Profits Thanks To iPad Line and iPhone 5

ZooGue is known for having some pretty awesome promotions. Just before the iPhone 5 launched, I was able to grab a free case from the accessory maker. Today, ZooGue announced the launch of their newest iPad mini back cover and to celebrate, you can get it for only two bucks. The company has just released the new Social Case for iPad mini. It is a “sleek, modern case that provides thin, yet durable protection.” It is made from thermoplastic polyurethane for comfortable, flexible protection. It features a ridged grip to help you keep hold of your tablet. All controls are accessible. I was very happy with my iPhone 5 “Social Pro” case. It fits perfectly, offers a protective covering without adding weight or mass. The material is smooth and comfortable. The Social for iPad mini is from the same series of cases. The Social for iPad mini comes in black, navy blue, and red. You can order up to four cases for $1.99 plus shipping and handling from the company’s website while supplies last. After the sale is over, they will go back to the regular price of $16.49. » Related posts: ZAGG Takes Wraps off Two New Super Thin iPad Mini Keyboards ZooGue Releases New Genius Pro iPad Case First iPad Mini Case Appears, Ahead of Apple Announcement

If you're planning on taking a vacation anytime soon or in the near future, you're probably already aware that there are typically lots of documents and information involved. Everything from boarding passes to rental car reservations to hotel reservations to anything else you may be planning. Keeping all of it straight can be a headache. That's where TripIt comes in to help you stay organized and keep everything all in one place. TripIt is basically an all in one travel planner directly on your iPhone and iPad. Not only do you have the ability to enter your flight information, but TripIt will actually auto-fill info upon arrival to your airline. Outside of just tracking flights, you can also track reservations for things such as car rentals and hotel reservations. Therefore, you eliminate some clutter from your life and gain the ability of entering all your information into one place for easy reference anytime you need it. Creating a trip in TripIt is dead simple. Just enter some basic details like where you're going and when you're returning and you're already started. From there you can enter as much or as little information as you want. Outside of organizing actual travel details, you can also enter meeting information and receive notifications when events are coming up with TripIt Pro. This makes TripIt not only good for vacations, but for business trips as well. TripIt offers a premium subscriptions called TripIt Pro as an in-app purchase for $49 a year in order to track other things such as frequent flyer miles on your credit cards. You can then view when your miles expire and how many you have at any given time. TripIt Pro is an add-on and not require but definitely a must have for anyone who travels semi-frequently to frequently. The good Easy to use interface that makes entering information quick and painless Push notifications for upcoming flights, events, reservations, and more with TripIt Pro Pro option allows you to track even more things such as frequent flier miles Inner Circle feature allows anyone you'd like to have automatic access to your travel plans (requires Pro membership) The bad No complaints The bottom line If you travel frequently or find yourself overwhelmed with keeping track of flight information and reservations for vacations, TripIt is a must have. For those who travel constantly, TripIt makes mapping out your trips painless and is well worth the $49 a year price tag to track virtually everything you'd need as well as receive notifications on the go. Before planning your next vacation, definitely give TripIt a look when it comes time for keeping track of all those bookings and reservations. $0.99 (ad based version available for free) - Download Now

We're coming to you live this morning from the beautiful Sands Expo Convention Center in Las Vegas, where Verizon is going to talk to us about ... something. Given the context of the CTIA venue, it's entirely possible we'll just be getting an update on Verizon's network capabilities -- and possibly an update on when to expect Voice Over LTE. Or, perhaps we'll actually get some new hardware.  Only one way to find out -- it's liveblog time! The show kicks off just after 2 p.m. EDT, and 11 a.m. PDT. (OK, technically things get going at 10 after, but we're nothing if not early.) Join us after the break as we bring it to you, live.