I was surprised to see this “news” item appear in ZDNet a few days ago: iPads go black in portrait mode with polarized sunglasses. This problem has existed since the first iPad launched in 2010. You can see a video demo of the problem that I posted back on June 5, 2010. What is surprising, however, is that Apple never fixed the problem in the next two iPad generations.
Author: todd
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Fitbit milestone (for me): 3000+ miles
Sometime yesterday, I hit a Fitbit milestone: 3000+ miles logged on my Fitbit activity monitor. -
Bloomberg Businessweek+ for iOS adds iPhone compatibility
The Bloomberg Businessweek+ app, which just passed the 100,000 subscriber mark among iPad users, officially launches for the iPhone and iPod touch tomorrow (April 11, 2012).The app breaks the magazine replica format used by most e-magazines by providing a web-like navigation experience on the iPhone. The tabbed categories seen in the iPad version of the app is not available on the smaller iPhone display. However, the navigation system brought over from the iPad makes it fast and easy to select an article within a topic category. The content of a single article is viewed vertically. Moving to another article within a topic category is down by swiping left or right. This eliminates the need to go back up a hierarchical tree to find another article in the same category. I prefer this break away from the paper magazine replica approach. It provides faster navigation and a better reading experience.
The developers managed to keep the content download time way under typical magazine downloads I’ve experienced. They claim that an issue can be downloaded in about three minutes over a typical 3G connection. I downloaded an issue over WiFi and found it ready to read in about a minute.
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Apps update for my iPhone & iPad in the past week: 52
Fifty-two apps were updated for the iPhone or iPad in the past week. Here are the app updates I found interesting.
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Instagram for Android updated to support tablets
The recently released Instagram for Android got an update that adds support for tablets and the ability to install the app on SD cards. The app worked on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. However, it seemed to me that it did not provide a cursor to indicate text positioning in some situations (caption box to enter text). The app posted fine to Facebook in my test. -
Ultra-cheap stand for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
I just bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet and needed a way to stand it up when using it with a Bluetooth keyboard. Instead of looking for something like the iPad’s folding smartcover or buying an expensive stand, I found that the simple business card holder seen in the photos here does a good job as a stand when the tablet is in a landscape orientation. I don’t remember what I paid for it. But, I would be surprised if I paid more than $3 for it. It was originally purchased to hold a smartphone while charging.