Steve Jobs Timeline 2000-2011

21 04 2014

Steve Jobs, who stepped down as CEO of Apple on January 17, 2011, after having been on medical leave, reflected on his life, career and mortality in a noteworthy commencement address at Stanford University in 2005.

This speech is an outstanding summarization of the philosophy of one of the top influencers of our times when it comes to paradigm shifts in mobile communication, creating seamless to use products, customer relationships, customer satisfaction, teaching, and learning.

Admittedly all this was only possible by developments in the internet technology and the availability of public access starting in the late 1980s.

Steve Jobs speech …
(emphasis mine)

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together. I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.

As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now. This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.

And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much.

Internalizing some essential points of his philosophy may enrich the lives of all of us.

The timeline 2000-2011 …

These years were the most successful years of Apple as they caused the rise to the most valuable and innovative company of the world (Forbes 2013).

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Just tap on an image to zoom it.

Feel free to download this map from my Box account.

The alternative file formats have been created with iThoughts HD for iPad (.ITMZ file format). Compatibility to other tools is limited. The DOCX file format is suggested for those who don’t use a mind mapping tool. The file contains the image as well as a detailed outline of all topics.

Application File format
Adobe Reader PDF
Apple iWork/Microsoft Word DOCX
iThoughts ITMZ
MindManager MMAP
XMind XMIND

Summary …

Think back for a moment. The 3.5-inch floppy drive, the mouse, the graphical user interface, the windowed operating system, WYSIWYG, the all-in-one computer, the laser printer, simple, user-friendly networking, SCSI, FireWire, USB, Bluetooth, ExpressCard, no floppy drive, wide-screen displays, built-in microphones, and webcams, trackpads, illuminated keyboards, the Newton and the iPod, to name but a few, were all brought to prominence and public acceptance by Apple.

As important as all these technical achievements are however, I feel that Apple’s greatest accomplishments have been the paradigm shifts they have made in the human experience. Remember, the idea that normal people should be able to own and use a computer started at Apple. The idea that industrial design and esthetic appeal can go hand in hand started at Apple. The idea that hardware and software should ‘just work’ started at Apple.

Related links …

Apple’s Customer Relationships

Designed by Apple in California

Apple’s Strategy and Ad

Apple’s Supplier Responsibility

About statistics

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Categories : Apple

NASA Education Apps

17 04 2014

When Apple released its first iPad in 2010, forward-looking universities around the world started research studies on how this device could be integrated into learning and teaching.

Research initiatives had to find out where an iPad could improve the learning and teaching process in general.

  • Shifts in paradigms
    The integration of the iPad in the classroom is not only enhancing the way students learn but also changing the way instructors teach. Students now expect stimulation and immediacy; everyone wants everything faster and easier than before.
    “Our students are already so visual as far as learning styles are concerned that it’s becoming the new wave,” says Dr. Garcia. “We, as instructors, are going to have to adjust our teaching methodology in order to keep them engaged and in using the iPad, we can show the students movies and animations and give them a wide array of multimedia resources that they can tap into.”
  • Adjusting the content to its needs
    “The iPad is typically thought of as more of a consumer product”, says Dr. Garcia “but with the right fine-tuning we were able to modify some applications to make the lectures easy to view for the students.”
  • Easy deployment of course material
    About 30 years ago I myself was a teacher of physics, maths and informatics. Course material was produced by duplicating stencils written by hand or with a typewriter. Today teachers can develop their courses on a PC or an iPad and send it to a commonly used resource e.g. cloud storage from which students download it to their mobile device.
  • Reducing costs of learning
    HCC Houston Community College
    “It’s hard having to come up with the money to buy books every semester,” says Mari Hernandez, an Anatomy and Physiology student. “With the iPad, I was able to download it for free and start studying right away, instead of waiting until I could afford to buy the book.”
  • Increased mobility
    one device for the classroom, the campus and at home
  • Improved collaboration techniques
    Young people today are highly engaged in social networking and it’s an everyday experience to exchange information via Twitter or Facebook.
    Learning methods have to accept these new ways of how young people communicate with each other. The professor standing in front of his students and using a chalkboard for hours does not enhance collaboration which contradicts the expectations of young people how to get in touch with learning material and at what time they want to do it.

The App Store features over 65,000 education apps – designed especially for the iPad – that cover a wide range of subjects for every grade level and learning style.

Apple about education apps …

The App Store gives you endless ways to help students learn new concepts and express their creativity. Let your class explore the properties of magnesium with an interactive periodic table of elements. Teach young readers new words with an app that turns word-building into a game. Or find a digital painting app to make art anywhere without brushes or paint. You can find study aid apps built specifically for drills and practice. And apps that complement different learning styles. Whatever you’re teaching, apps help you do what you do best – inspire students to think in new ways.

Today I would like to present an overview about the development of education apps for the iPad and the iPhone by the NASA.

The NASA …

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation’s civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

Since that time, most U.S. space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the Space Launch System and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches.
Wikipedia

Apps of the NASA …

The actual offer of the NASA as of January 2014 …

Images of Change

Natural disasters, a warming climate, and human activities are rapidly altering the face of our planet. NASA’s Images of Change app lets you take a close-up view of many of these changes in an exciting and hands-on format. The app presents a curated collection of the best image pairs from NASA’s Global Climate Change website. These image pairs show areas that have been subject to natural disasters or seen significant change over time. Compare Alaska’s Muir Glacier in 1941 to the glacier as it Looked in 2004. Take a before-and-after look at flooding in the Missouri River or at wildfires in Colorado. See the expansion of agriculture in Saudi Arabia as viewed from satellites. All photo pairs can be viewed individually, side by side, or overlaid with a slider bar for easy comparisons. Each image pair contains background information and a map showing its location. The images presented in Images of Change are meticulously selected and constantly updated to give you an informative, compelling, and up-to-date visual experience.

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NASA Earth As Art

In 1960 the United States put its first Earth-observing environmental satellite into orbit around the planet. OvE the decades these satellites have provided invaluable information, and the vantage point of space has provid new perspectives on Earth. This app celebrates Earth’s aesthetic beauty in the patterns, shapes, colors, and textures of the land, oceans, ice, and atmosphere.
The app features stunning images of Earth from the Terra, Landsat 5, Landsat 7, EO-1, and Aqua satellites.
Sensors on these satellites can measure light outside of the visible range, so the images show more than what is visible to the naked eye. The app draws on several images from the USGS Landsat image gallery and introduces many new images.
This app features time-lapse satellite images of locations on Earth undergoing significant change over decad linking to NASA’s Earth Observatory website. The app has a thumbnail gallery of the images as well as an interactive directory with images organized by geographic region. Each image has a brief caption and the abi to enlarge each scene.
The beauty of Earth is clear, and the artistry ranges from the surreal to the sublime.

EAServices

The Johnson Space Center Engineering Directorate provides core engineering disciplines, facilities, and laboratories for Human Spaceflight Programs. The Engineering Directorate develops many of the technologies that are needed for the exploration of space. This application highlights some of the innovative technologies developed at NASA JSC and the technical facilities used to evaluate these technologies. Engineering is uniquely positioned to tailor and apply technical solutions developed for spaceflight to the challenges of other industries.

Spinoff 2012

NASA Spinoff profiles the best examples of technology that have been transferred from NASA research and missfons into commercial products. From life-saving satellite systems to hospital robots that care for patients and more, NASA technologies benefit society.
This app features shortened versions of all of the articles from the Benefits section of the 2012 edition of Spinoff, which is available in print, PDF, and HTML versions on the Spinoff website.

30 Years Shuttlebook

The Space Shuttle fleet set high marks of achievement and endurance through 30 years of missions, from its first, when STS-1 launched on Apn112, 1981, to its last, when STS-135 landed on July 21,2011. Beginning with the orbiter Columbia and continuing with Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Space Shuttle has carried people into orbit; launched, recovered, and repaired satellites; conducted cutting-edge research; and helped build the largest artificial structure in space, the International Space Station.
As humanity’s first reusable spacecraft, the Space Shuttle pushed the bounds of inquiry, requiring not only advanced technologies, but the tremendous effort of a vast workforce. Thousands of civil servants and contractors throughout NASA Centers and across the Nation have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to mission success and the greater goal of space exploration. For an entire generation, the Space Shuttle program defined NASA. This book is a tribute to everything accomplished during the Shuttle program’s 30 years of operation.

iMorpheus

Project Morpheus is testing a new NASA spacecraft at the Johnson Space Center, and the iMorpheus lOS app aims to bring you right to the center of the action! iMerpheus streams real lander telemetry from the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center and builds a live, real-time 3D simulation during actual engine and performance tests. If the lander isn’t being tested, you can just go to manual and have your own virtual test flight around JSC.
Features:
Live rocket telemetry during Morpheus lander tests rendered as 3D simulations
Recorded telemetry from previous flights when not testing
Fly your Morpheus lander around a virtual JSC, in daytime and nighttime[
Test your Morpheus Lander by flying through a series of GPS checkpoints
Live streaming of @MorpheusLander’s Twitter feed

Space communications and navigation: NetworKing

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Communications and Navigation (SCAN) Program is responsible for providing communications and navigation services to space flight missions locate, throughout the solar system. Astronauts, mission controllers, and scientists depend upon the reliable transmission of information between Earth and spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) or deep space.
As a new Network Manager, your job will be to build and upgrade a complex communications network in order to support scientific missions.
Objectives: Build the Near Earth Network. Enable periodic communication with satellites in low Earth orbit, Buird the Space Network. Deploy a constellation of geosynchronous relay satellites to support LEO mission that require continuous coverage, Build the Deep Space Network. Support interplanetary spacecraft missions with powerful antennas, Manage and Improve Your Networks, Manage your network usage, deal with disasters, and research upgrades to enhance your networks’ capabilities, Support NASA Missions. Advance your networks to unlock special NASA missions that show the networks in action.

Ascent: Commemorating Shuttle

Ascent is a compilation of film and video representing the best of the best ground based Shuttle motion imagery from the STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 missions. This app includes the entire Ascent production with commentary, numerous additional scenes, selected images, production notes, and an unreleased trailer.

Rocket Science 101

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to launch a NASA spacecraft with NASA’s Rocket Science 101 (RS101). Select your favorite NASA mission and build a rocket to send the spacecraft into orbit. As you take the RS101 challenge, you can learn more about thrilling missions and the various components of the launch vehicles, how they are configured and how they work together to successfully launch a NASA spacecraft. NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) does the same things for real rockets and exciting spacecraft missions every day. About LSP:
NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) leads the agency in providing access to space for the exploration of our home planet, solar system and the universe. LSP is located at the Kennedy Space Center and acts as a broker to match unmanned payloads with specific launch vehicles for customers to ensure mission success. The principal objectives of LSP are to provide safe, reliable, cost-effective and on-schedule processing, mission analysis and spacecraft integration and launch services for NASA and NASA-sponsored payloads. To learn more about LSR rockets and NASA missions go to: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/ index.html

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NASA Technology Innovation 16.1

Technology Innovation is a digital publication of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate which will feature the latest space technology innovators and project developments across the agency. It will also highlight the American inventors, entrepreneurs and application engineers who have transformed space exploration technologies into products that benefit the nation. This issue focuses on a few of the innovators, systems, and materials that helped to make 2012 a groundbreaking year in Mars exploration. The technologies pioneered by these scientists will be vitat components of future space missions, but they are also improving life on Earth through a wide variety of industrial, educational, and humanitarian applications.
Volume 16, number 1, contains four feature articles:
Time Fries: MEDLI, Tailor Made: Woven Thermal Protection Systems, Innovation Without Borders: International Space Apps Challenge, Photon Express: Optical Communications, plus short articles on the commercial evolution of a heat-resistant coating invented by scientists at Ames Research Center and airflow sensors developed by a former NASA engineer. The issue closes with an “Insight” piece by Nell Cheatwood, the Principal Investigator for Planetary Entry, Descent and Landing at Langley Research Center.

NASA Technology Innovation 16.2

Volume 16, number 2, contains four feature articles:
The Ions Have It, Setting Sail, Big Ideas, Small Packages, Tapping the Source, plus short articles on how a rocket engine designed at Marshall Space Flight Center produced the development of a new ultra-high-pressure fire-suppression system and how a superconducting wire created for NASA’s advanced turboelectric distributed propulsion system is now being used in the manufacture of MRI scanners. The issue closes with an “insight” piece by Michael Gazarik, Associate Administrator of the Space Technology Mission Directorate.

NASA Glenn Research Center: The Early Years

A photographic retrospective of the first forty years of operation at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, located in Cleveland, Ohio. Drawn from a large collection of archived photos, these images and in-depth descriptions provide an insight into the research, people, and activities that herped pioneer America’s advances in aeronautics and space technology. Get a unique view and understanding of NASA Glenn’s history from 1941 through 1979.

NASA Science Mission Highlights

This digital publication highlights just a few of NASA’s many exciting science missions. Here you will learn about the missions designed to accomplish NASA’s overarcbing science goals in Earth science, heliophysics, planetary science, and astrophysics.

NASA Science: A Journey of Discovery

NASA leads the nation on a great journey of discovery, seeking new knowledge and understanding of our planet Earth, our Sun and sorar system, and the universe out to its farthest reaches and back to its earliest moments of existence. This NASA Science application brings you the latest information from NASA’s Science Missions, including the spacecraft, their instruments, the data, and what we are Jearning about the questions we seek to answer. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and the nation’s science community use space observatories to conduct scientific studies of the Earth from space to visit and return samples from other bodies in the solar system, and to peer out into our Galaxy and beyond.

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ISSLive

See Real Time Data and what’s happening onboard the International Space Station
Interact with live streaming data from the International Space Station (ISS), Take virtual 3D tours of the Mission Control Center (MCC) and ISS, and View console displays, crew and science timelines, descriptions how the ISS works and how the MCC supports the ISS.
There are educational lessons available that interact with the live streaming system data accessible through the website link ISSLive! that tie ISS streaming systems data and operational timelines into one “Rich Intemet Application (RIA)” experience. The application offers data on real time parameters such as station position, internal environment, altitude, payload rack science activities and other interesting data and crew activities.

NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG)

The NASA OIG provides independent and objective oversight of NASA programs and operations. Get the latest information on the OIG audit reports, investigations, special reviews, semiannual reports, and congressional testimony.

NASA Visualization Explorer

This is the NASA Visualization Explorer, the coolest way to get stories about advanced space-based research delivered right to your iPad. A direct connection to NASA’s extraordinary fleet of research spacecraft, this app presents cutting edge research stories in an engaging and excitJng format. See the Earth as you’ve never seen it before; travel to places otherwise unavailable to even the most intrepid explorers.

NASA Television

The NASA Television App brings live and on-demand TV programming to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Watch the latest NASA events unford in real-time or select from a list of recently uploaded videos. Plan your viewing up to a week in advance with the NASA TV schedule, and check out a list of NASA-related programming on other networks.

NASA App

Explore with NASA and discover the latest images, videos, mission information, news, feature storie tweets, NASA TV and featured content. Features:
•Current NASA mission information, over 12,000 images (and growing everyday), Latest news & feature stories, On demand NASA Videos from around the agency, Live streaming of the NASA TV, Third Rock internet streaming radio, Launch information + countdown clocks, Sighting opportunities (visible passes for the ISS), ISS and Earth orbiting satellite trackers, Featured content section, Latest tweets from around the agency, Programs section, Facebook Connect and Integrated Twitter client for easy sharing, Map, information and links to all of the NASA visitor centers, Favorites + image bookmarks, Printing support

Space Place Prime

Space Place Prime is a content presentation app that gathers some of the best and most recent offerings from NASA. A spinoff of NASA’s popular kids’ Space Place website (spaceplace.nasa.gov or science.nasa.gov/kids), Space Place Prime has intergenerational appeal. It taps timely educational and easy-to-read articles from the website, as well as daily updates of NASA space and Earth-from-space images and the latest informative videos.
The interface is a slidable, looping grid of images, one for each feature, with icons indicating whether they represent an image, a video, or an article. Alternatively, a list mode and a carousel mode present images, videos, and articles sorted separately. Content is updated daily, retaining the previous few days-worth of features. Favorites can be tagged for permanent archive.
Facebook, twitter, and e-mail connections make any feature easy to share.

Space365

When did Neil Armstrong land on the moon? When was Jon Stewart born? What space events happened around my birthday?
Free, fun Space365 lets you see what NASA events and quirky trivia facts happened each day of the year.
Features:
• Search by keywords, categories and dates, Over 4,000 events (updated weekly), Corresponding photos with events, Links for more detailed information about the event, Save your favorite events, View the NASA image of the day and it’s details, Send questions to the Space365 team, Tweet, Like and Circle about Space365.

Summary …

This mind map summarizes all the information above.

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If you use a mind mapping tool like iThoughts HD for the iPad you will see a small icon assigned to each topic. It points to additional textual information shown in the upper part of the screen. So all the app descriptions above would’t be necessary if the use of a mind mapping tool could be supposed.

20140102-162326.jpg

Feel free to download this map from my Box account.

The alternative file formats have been created with iThoughts HD for iPad (.ITMZ file format). Compatibility to other tools is limited.

Application File format
Adobe Reader PDF
Apple iWork/Microsoft Word DOCX
iThoughts ITMZ
MindManager MMAP
XMind XMIND

Further sources …

iTunes U is a part of the iTunes Store featuring free lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and more, that you can enjoy on your iPod, iPhone, Mac or PC. Explore over 600,000 educational audio and video files, books, and other resources from top universities, museums and public media organizations from around the world (30 countries) on thousands of subjects from Algebra to Zoology. The relevance of iTunes U is validated by engagements of Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, The Open University, MoMA, the New York Public Library, and the Library of Congress. It’s the world’s largest catalog of free education content.

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A further source with more than 65,000 apps for education is Apple’s App Store where one of the categories is ‘Education’.

Summary …

Apple takes cars of the educational sector. Teachers should learn how to integrate the usage of tablets in the curriculum.

Related links …

NASA, USA

Apple about Education

i(Space)Weather

iPad @ Universities

iPad @ School

Back to the roots

About the mind mapping tool …

iThoughts for the iPad

Thanks for flying with iNotes4You.


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Categories : App Review, Education

i(Space)Weather

13 04 2014

News from the stock exchange is always being discussed by investors. News about the weather is a mainstream conversation. I cannot present stats but I think it’s the most talked about topic, worldwide with quite different motivations.

Pray don’t talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else. And that makes me quite nervous.
Oscar Wilde

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
P. D. James

Importance …

Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere on a given place and using scientific understanding of atmospheric processes to project how the atmosphere will evolve on that place.

When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large scientific method in most cases fails. One need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible.
Albert Einstein

The chaotic nature of the atmosphere, the massive computational power required to solve the equations that describe the atmosphere, errors involved in measuring the initial conditions, and an incomplete understanding of atmospheric processes mean that forecasts become less accurate as the difference in current time and the time for which the forecast is being made (the range of the forecast) increases.

There are a variety of end uses to weather forecasts. Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life and property. Forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture, and therefore to traders within commodity markets. Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days. On an everyday basis, people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day. Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by heavy rain, snow and the wind chill, forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events, and to plan ahead and survive them.

Thunderstorms can create strong winds and dangerous lightning strikes that can lead to deaths, power outages, and widespread hail damage. Heavy snow or rain can bring transportation and commerce to a stand-still, as well as cause flooding in low-lying areas. Excessive heat or cold waves can sicken or kill those with inadequate utilities, and droughts can impact water usage and destroy vegetation.

Space weather …

Space weather is becoming a very important aspect of the weather services, and will continue to grow as we gain a better understanding of the physical processes of the sun and their effects here on the Earth as well as in space itself.

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Space weather can have significant effects to humans on Earth as well as in space due to the growing number of satellites in space, power grids on Earth, use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS), as well as commuter air travel and space travel. Solar flares, coronal holes, and coronal mass ejections (CME’s) can emit large bursts of radiation, high speed electrons and protons, and other highly energetic particles that are released from the sun, and are sometimes directed to the Earth.

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There are 3 main categories of space weather storms: geomagnetic storms, caused by CME´s and the high speed wind from coronal holes, that can create beautiful auroras, as well as cause problems for electrical systems, satellites, GPS navigation, radio systems (radio blackouts), power line transmissions, cell phones, health of astronauts, people flying at high altitudes, and satellite orbits. For this reason, the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) located in Boulder, Colorado issues a variety of space weather forecasts and warnings daily to alert those concerned with these effects.

There is a universal free app called SpaceWeather (by Utah State University, icon name SpaceWx) which tells you what’s going on in space. It should be mentioned that you need some knowledge to understand all the measured parameters shown in the app.

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For example, say that a flare occurs and you want to know its effects at Earth right now. The app uniquely extracts data from real-time, operational systems linking the four major space environment domains (Sun, solar wind, magnetosphere, thermosphere/ionosphere). With a tap of the finger you see a detailed chain of energy events including SDO Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) solar images, the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) solar wind calculations, the forecast of the Dst geomagnetic disturbance at Earth, and even the real-time ionospheric total electron content (TEC).
The app provides the most up-to-date visualization of the entire energy transfer from the Sun to the Earth at your fingertips.

Data comes from participating institutions, including NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, National Solar Observatory, Solar Dynamics Observatory, Space Environment Technologies, SOHO consortium, STEREO mission, NorthWest Research Associates, NASA Community Coordinated Modeling Center, Rice University, Kyoto University World Data Center, Oulu University, Space Environment Corporation, U.S., Geological Survey, Utah State University Space Weather Center, and Virginia Tech University.

Real-time space weather data includes:

  • 60 solar data sets
  • 16 solar wind data sets
  • 23 magnetosphere data sets
  • 53 atmosphere data sets
  • 13 alerts

NOAA …

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere.

NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), located in Asheville, North Carolina, maintains the world’s largest climate data archive and provides climatological services and data to every sector of the United States economy and to users worldwide. Records in the archive range from paleoclimatology data (collected through the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of the Earth) to centuries-old journals to data less than an hour old.

The Center’s mission is to preserve these data and make them available to the public, business, industry, government, and researchers.

Apps …

The iPhone comes with a built-in app which allows to retrieve actual information from Yahoo about the weather as well as a forecast for configurable locations. Shortened information is also shown in the notification center.

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You will find many apps in Apple’s App Store showing information about the weather which can be installed on both iOS devices, the iPhone and the iPad.

Retrieval of data …

Developers of weather apps can use so-called APIs (Application Programming Interface) which, integrated in the application’s code, retrieves information from weather data providers. Data are based on countless earthbound weather stations as well as data from satellites and airplanes.

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Living Earth …

Living Earth is a universal app (that means, once downloaded it’s available on all your iOS devices) by Radiantlabs, LLC. It comes with a live 3D simulation of our planet with global weather, forecasts and world clock for cities around the world. If you start the app a rotating globe is shown with live sunrise and sunset borders.

Features …

  • live cloud patterns from near real-time satellite cloud data updated every 3 h
    hurricanes and tropical storms
  • live 3D weather maps with temperature (max, min, mean) humidity, wind, and 7 day and 2 h forecasts
  • tropical cyclon push notifications and updates on current storm systems
  • sunrise and sunset borders and times for sunrise and sunset around the world
    snow and ice coverage
  • alarm clock with music playlist
  • home screen temperature icon
  • iCloud city syncing with the Living Earth app for Mac
  • sharing of the actual screen on Facebook, Twitter, and by mail
  • changing the rotation speed and rotation direction by swiping fast/slow or left/right/up/down
  • comprehensive overview about the actual weather for all defined cities

The app was first published in Sep 2010 and got 25 updates until the end of 2013.

See these impressions of the UI …

Summary …

There are many apps retrieving weather data from various providers. In many cases these providers are not mentioned so it’s not easy to assess the quality of shown data.

Related links …

Weather forecasting

National climate data center

Space Weather

World Weather Online APIs

Thanks for visiting iNotes4You.


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Categories : App Review

Jailbreak

9 04 2014

Many people are talking about restrictions in Apple’s operating system iOS for their mobile devices.

They obviously miss the point that these restrictions are well-considered and part of Apple’s strategy of seamless usage and a perfect user experience within an ecosystem which is developed for serving people.

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What does ‘Jailbreaking’ mean?

iOS jailbreaking is the process of removing the limitations on Apple’s iOS devices through the use of software and hardware exploits; such devices include the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and second-generation Apple TV. Jailbreaking permits root access to the iOS operating system, allowing the download of additional applications, extensions, and themes that are unavailable through the official Apple App Store.

Jailbreaking is a form of privilege escalation. The name refers to breaking the device out of its “jail”. Jailbroken devices can still use the App Store, iTunes, and other normal functions, such as making telephone calls. Many other built-in features are no longer available.
Restoring a device with iTunes or iCloud removes the jailbreak.

Jailbreaks (JB) are not supported by Apple, quite the contrary, Apple fights against it and people jailbreaking a device violate Apple’s iOS End-User License Agreement (EULA). JB can make your device less secure and you may loose the warranty. If people do not accept the original operating system with its limitations it might be better for them to move over to an other platform like Android. Additionally JB is illegitimate in some countries because DRM (Digital Rights Management) can be affected.

The main part of the agreement is

“2 c. You may not, and you agree not to or enable others to, copy (except as expressly permitted by this License), decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, attempt to derive the source code of, decrypt, modify, or create derivative works of the iOS Software or any services provided by the iOS Software or any part thereof (except as and only to the extent any foregoing restriction is prohibited by applicable law or by licensing terms governing use of open-source components that may be included with the iOS Software).”

Jailbreaking a device is a kind of ‘reverse engineering’.

Reverse Engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation. It often involves disassembling something and analyzing its components and workings in detail – for either purposes of maintenance or to support creation of a new device or program that does the same thing, without using or simply duplicating (without understanding) the original.
Jailbreaking is a kind of reverse engineering and users jailbreaking their iOS devices infringe Apple’s EULA which they already accepted when setting up the device.

Fair use seems to be safe ground for reverse engineers, almost always using it as a defense. However:

An EULA is a legally binding contract.

If a user agrees to terms which are in conflict with fair use, the user has effectively waved their rights to fair use.

Legal Aspects of Reverse Engineering

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act …

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was put into place in 1998 in order to make any service or device with purpose of undermining or removing DRM (Digital Rights Management) copyright infringement. The act forbids any service or device from being designed to circumvent, or even being marketed to circumvent any DRM.
There is, however, an exception in the DMCA stating that reverse engineering can be done under the purposes of inter-operability between software components. It states the following:

  • Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a)(1)(A), a person who has lawfully obtained the right to use a copy of a computer program may circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a particular portion of that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing those elements of the program that are necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title.
  • Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a)(2) and (b), a person may develop and employ technological means to circumvent a technological measure, or to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure, in order to enable the identification and analysis under paragraph (1), or for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, if such means are necessary to achieve such interoperability, to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title.
  • The information acquired through the acts permitted under paragraph (1), and the means permitted under paragraph (2), may be made available to others if the person referred to in paragraph (1) or (2), as the case may be, provides such information or means solely for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title or violate applicable law other than this section.

    For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘interoperability’ means the ability of computer programs to exchange information, and of such programs mutually to use the information which has been exchanged.

Fair use does still apply. However, it is not fair use to gain unauthorized access to copyrighted work.

Further information …

Apple wants iOS to remain secure on the whole, and jailbreaking can threaten that. Apple identifies these concerns:

  • Security
    Jailbreaking removes the security layers on iOS devices.
  • Instability
    Jailbreaking causes an iPhone to behave erratically.
  • Shortened battery life
    Jailbreaking apps and services may not run correctly which may drain your battery.
  • Unreliable voice and data
  • Disruption of services
    Services such as Visual Voicemail, Weather and Stocks have been disrupted. iCloud, Exchange and Apple Push notification all suffer (according to Apple) on jailbroken devices.
  • Inability to update
    Because Apple frequently removes jailbroken software in its updates, many jailbroken phones do not update. This can result in running an out-of-date phone.

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Evad3r …

Shortly before Christmas 2013 some Jailbreak fans got an early gift of a Jailbreak for iOS 7.
See what McMurmor wrote about this “Christmas present“:

This allowed users of their new iPhone 5S/C, iPad mini Retina Display and iPad Air users unlock their device for tweaks outside Apple’s community.

However, after the crack was released, major controversy with Evad3rs grew with the Chinese store called Taig which also included mass amounts of pirated content, with no reason as to why Taig was included and not an official Cydia.

After a horrific response from the public, the Evad3r team worked frantically to remove Taig. They claim Taig installed themselves with their cracked version, and didn’t have permission nor source code. (How upon release, is still remaining as the big question.)

Yet, how would Taig be able to get their app store version in the Evad3r jailbreak so easy, still baffles users and has created a lot of disappointment towards to jailbreak community. The team touched on the mistake in multiple open letters, but the damage had already been done.

Apple has taken a silent approach aimed at the consumer who bothered to crack their device. Apple has internal software that can see not only how many times your device has been restored, what software version and even if your iOS device was jailbroken.

Once you jailbreak your device, you can kiss your warranty/Apple Care goodbye.

Jailbreaking is a direct violation of Apple’s intended use of the product, so they will treat it with the exact same respect as the person who has jailbroken the device has shown.

This means Apple will refuse all help that would be given to a non-jailbroken iOS user, but Apple’s forums will also refuse help on the matter.

What can be done with a jailbroken iPhone?

The main reason people jailbreak their phones is to run pirated (copied) software and install it without paying for the privilege. We’re not here to moralize: whether you pay for software is up to you. Although given the amount of free software on the app store, and the sheer hassle it is to jailbreak an iPhone, we do rather wonder why people bother.

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The other – perhaps more viable – area is to run apps and services that are not allowed by Apple. Jailbreaking installed a rival to the Apple Store called Cydia. This features apps in areas that Apple bans, such as pornography. But there are also apps that allow you to perform blocked tasks such as tethering; apps that have been removed from the store such as Sparrow. You can also change the default apps replacing Maps with Google Maps and the default keyboard with a version called Octopus. It’s perfect for tinkerers.

Cydia …

Wikipedia explains …

Cydia is a software application for iOS that enables a user to find and install software packages on jailbroken iOS Apple devices such as the iPhone. It also refers to digital distribution platform for software on iOS accessed through Cydia software. Some of the software packages available through Cydia are free, and some require purchasing.
Cydia is developed by Jay Freeman (also called “Saurik”) and his company, SaurikIT. The name “Cydia” is an allusion to the Codling Moth, with a scientific name of Cydia pomonella, which is the proverbial “worm in the apple.”

Cydia provides a graphical user interface to jailbroken users using Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) repositories to install software unavailable on the App Store. Cydia is based on APT, ported to iOS as part of Freeman’s Telesphoreo project.
Software packages are downloaded directly to an iOS device, to the same location as Apple’s pre-installed applications, the /Applications directory. Jailbroken devices can also still buy and download apps normally from the official App Store.
Cydia can be installed during the process of jailbreaking an iOS device. Some Jailbreaking tools (each of them supporting a specific set of devices and iOS versions) install Cydia automatically, while others provide a choice to the user.

Summary …

Jailbreaking an iOS device might be interesting for tech freaks but it’s definitely not useful and a customization of a device without limits is not what Apple intends with it’s strategy of seamless usage, focusing on essentials, and security. It’s a kind of error in motivation to jailbreak an Apple devices. It seems to be clear that it’s primarily not the meaningful usage but the demand of getting more control over a technical product which let people jailbreak their device. In my humble opinion they should better move over to an other platform like Android.

Enough reasons to not jailbreak an iOS device and instead focus on useful things which can be done with the original?

Jailbreakers cannot claim to be Apple fans. It’s a blatant ignorance of all the hard work of Apple’s software technicians which is expressed in this statement:

True simplicity is so much more than just the absence of clutter or the removal of decoration. It’s about offering up the right things, in the right place, right when you need them. It’s about bringing order to complexity.
(Sir Jonathan Ive)

The internet era supports criminal activities and the main reason is that people mostly remain anonymous when violating clearly defined rules. Look at my blog posts and see what can be done with an original device to improve communication, knowledge, creativity, and personality. JB doesn’t pay. All you need is already implemented in Apple’s operating system and the many excellent apps supporting your daily tasks or your creativity. Changing a theme, a wallpaper, or downloading apps from more or less dubious companies might be funny but in whole it’s pointless.

Some tech nerds may forward many arguments to extract advantages from jailbreaking but they never will convince me. It ‘s simply a question of priority in regard to a meaningful usage of a mobile device.

Related links …

Apple’s Focusing

Apple’s Ecosystem

Security made by Apple

Thanks for visiting iNotes4You.


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Categories : Apple, iOS

Li-Ion Battery

5 04 2014

Your iOS device gets its energy from a Li-Ion battery.
Li is the symbol of Lithium discovered in 1817, weighs about o.5 g/cm3, and melts at about 180C (360F). It is a soft silver-white metal, the lightest metal, and as all alkali metals it’s highly reactive and flammable. Lithium mine production is mainly done in Chile, Australia, China, and Argentina. Due to its high reactivity it does not naturally occur in elemental form.

Lithium is corrosive and requires special handling to avoid skin contact. Breathing Lithium dust or compounds initially irritates nose and throat. Carriage and shipment of some kinds of Lithium batteries may be prohibited aboard certain types of transportation (aircraft) because of

the ability of most types of lithium batteries to fully discharge rapidly when short-circuited leading to overheating and possible explosion in a process called thermal runaway.

A thermal runaway is not very common (just two or three battery packs per million burst into flames) but when it happens, it’s extreme. In some situations, the failure rate can rise, and when that happens you end up with a worldwide battery recall that can cost manufacturers millions of dollars.

But don’t worry, batteries in your iOS device have thermal overload protection.

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The specific energy density of Li-Ion batteries is 100 to 250 Wh/kg (o.47$/Wh) and so it’s only comparable with Alkaline long-life batteries 0.19$/Wh). Because of the increasing usage in the automobile industry costs will decrease down to 0.20$/Wh in the near future.

Li-Ion batteries have a self-discharge rate of approximately 5–10% per month, compared to over 30% per month in common nickel metal hydride batteries, approximately 1.25% per month for low self-discharge NiMH batteries and 10% per month in nickel-cadmium batteries.

The electrical charge …

In tech specs you find the physical unit Milliamps Hour (mAh). It characterizes the ‘strength’ (the right physical term is ‘charge’) of a battery. The higher the mAh, the longer the battery will last.

Milliamps Hour is 1/1000th of an Amp Hour, so a 1000mAh = 1.0Ah

Think of it as a car’s gas tank. Voltage is how much gas is being used, and mAh is the size of the gas tank. The bigger the gas tank (mAh) rating the longer the device will run. If your battery is rechargeable, then think of the gas tank as refillable (rechargeable).

In physics an ampere-hour or amp-hour (symbol A·h, A h, Ah) is a unit of electric charge, with sub-units milliampere-hour (mA·h or mAh; often used in rechargeable and disposable battery specifications) and milliampere-second (mA·s). One ampere-hour is equal to 3600 Coulomb, the unit for electrical charge. The commonly seen milliampere-hour (mA·h or mAh) is one-thousandth of an ampere-hour (3.6 Coulomb).

Basics …

Get familiar with some physical units to understand the calculation.

  • Volt
    unit of electrical potential or motive force
    Potential is required to send one ampere of current through one ohm of resistance
  • Ampere
    unit of current
    One ampere is the current which one volt can send through a resistance of one ohm
  • Watt
    unit of electrical power
    Power is energy per time.
    One watt is the product of one ampere and one volt – one ampere of current flowing under the force of one volt gives one watt of power
  • Coulomb
    unit of electrical charge
    One Coulomb is transported if a current of one Ampere flows through a conductor for one second.
    It is equal to the charge of approximately 6.241×10 to the power of 18 electrons (6,241,000,000,000,000,000).
    So you can see that your investment in an iPhone is accompanied by a significant countervalue.
  • Joule
    unit of energy
    One Joule is one watt (power) being effective for one second. The unit is named after the UK physicist James Prescott Joule.

Electrical energy is potential energy before it is delivered to the end-use. Once converted from potential energy, electrical energy can always be described as another type of energy (heat, light, motion, etc.). In case of your iPhone most of the energy is used to enlighten the touchscreen and connecting to the outer world, aka internet.

Energy stored in your iPhone …

With these basics and Apple’s tech specs for the iPhone 5S we now can calculate the energy stored in the Li-Ion polymer battery.

Energy = Power x Time

The battery of the iPhone 5S has a electric charge of 1510 mAh (1.51 Coulomb) and works on 3.8 volts.

So the electrical energy stored in the battery is

1.51 A x 3,600 sec x 3.8 V = 20,656.8 J

that means approximately 21 kJ (kilo Joule).

Note
In reality this calculation is not fully correct because the voltage varies.

One Joule in everyday life represents approximately:

  • the energy required to lift a small apple (with a mass of approximately 100 g) vertically through one meter
  • the kinetic energy released when that same apple falls one meter to the ground.

So your fully charged iPhone approximately offers the energy released when 21,000 apples fall one meter to the ground.

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As an Apple fan you might feel sad with these many crashes of apples so just replace apples by bars of chocolate.

Safety …

Lithium-Ion batteries can be dangerous under some conditions and can pose a safety hazard since they contain, unlike other rechargeable batteries, a flammable electrolyte and are also kept pressurized. This makes the standards of these batteries high, and it consists of many safety features. There have been many reported accidents as well as recalls done by some companies.

Reducing energy consumption

Follow the instructions in this mind map to reduce energy consumption of your iOS 7 device.

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Feel free to download this map from my Box account.

The alternative file formats have been created with iThoughts HD for iPad (.ITMZ file format). Compatibility to other tools is limited. The DOCX file format is suggested for those who don’t use a mind mapping tool. The file contains the image as well as a detailed outline of all topics.

Application File format
Adobe Reader PDF
Apple iWork/Microsoft Word DOCX
iThoughts ITMZ
MindManager MMAP
XMind XMIND

Summary …

There is much energy stored in a fully charged iOS device but it’s still not enough to cover a whole day of frequent usage. With larger form factors for the iPhone battery life might be improved. There are already some innovative features in Apple’s operating system to reduce energy consumption up to the user behavior. The target however should be a 12h usage or, more convenient, an energy equivalent of 42,000 apples.

Related links …

What is electrical energy?

Li-Ion safety concerns

Apple about iPhone batteries

Thanks for stopping by and charging your brain.


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Categories : Miscellanea

Ap(pl)es

1 04 2014

It’s easy to forget that people once marveled at the interactive tablets carried around by characters in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, or the touch screens in Spielberg’s Minority Report – dream futures that have become reality.
In 1983 Apple co-founder Steve Jobs stated that his ultimate ambition was

“to put an incredibly great computer in a book that you can carry around with you and learn how to use in 20 minutes…”.

That vision would take him 27 years to realize.

With the release of the iPad mobile devices reached a new quality because of it’s screen size and the possibility to operate them just with the fingers and without any peripherals. They initiated a shift in paradigm of teaching and learning as well and from that time ‘people could hold the internet in their hands‘.

Historically the term first originated when Apple‘s founder Steve Jobs discussed the future of personal computing during an interview alongside Bill Gates at the fifth All Things Digital conference in 2007. At that time he described

“a category of devices that aren’t as general purpose, that are really more focused on specific functions, whether they’re phones or iPods or Zunes or what have you. And I think that category of devices is going to continue to be very innovative and we’re going to see lots of them,”

Jobs said.

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It wasn’t the first tablet computer by any means, and the iPad faced significant criticism when it was first announced – most pointedly the accusation that it was trying to fulfill a demand that didn’t exist. But the iPad surprised everyone, instantly spawning a market for a new form of computer that made the internet touchable and found its way into the hands of 170-million customers in its first three-and-a-half years.

There are some quite astonishing engineering feats behind the iPad. The iPad Air (launched in 2013), for example, weighs twenty times less than an Apple Mac from ten years ago, but packs four times the memory and four times the processing power. The glass that covers the screen is manufactured via a process which makes it harder than sapphire, and is coated with an invisible oil-repellant to reduce fingerprint staining.

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But most incredible of all is the fact that Jobs succeeded in coming up with a portable – and connected – computer that even orangutans in the Smithsonian National Zoo have worked out how to use, forever altering the future of digital media in the process.

A tablet …

When Steve Jobs ended years of speculation in 2010 by announcing the iPad tablet device, he helped launch a new era in computer hardware. Though tablet PCs have been around for years, the iPad was the first device to use the form factor successfully in the consumer market.

So what exactly is a tablet?

At its most basic level, a tablet PC is a mobile computing device that’s larger than a smartphone or personal digital assistant. In general, if the computing device uses an on-screen interface it’s a tablet.
To confuse matters, some manufacturers produce hybrid devices that are part tablet, part laptop computer. The device might come with an attached keyboard — the screen swivels or folds down to cover the keyboard and voila, you have a tablet!

In 2010, Lenovo introduced a prototype device called the IdeaPad U1 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev. At first glance, it looked like a normal laptop computer. But if you detached the screen from the base, the laptop converted to a tablet computer with its own, independent operating system. Lenovo rebranded the device, naming it the Lenovo LePad and launching it in China in 2011.

The touch screen …

Thousands of scientists, their researches and inventions, the ongoing miniaturization, and improvements in sensor technology made a smartphone and a tablet ready for use.

All tablets have a touch screen interface and an operating system capable of running small programs and interpreting gestures. Further sensors are used to automatically change the orientation from portrait to landscape mode.

Summarized, it was the touch screen first introduced with the iPhone in 2007 and it’s multi-touch capable operating system iOS which made the iPad to a device capable to replace computers for an increasing number of people.

The development of the Touch Screen Technology started in the 1960s although there are many results of basic scientific researches in physics starting hundreds of years earlier.

1960s

Historians consider the first touch screen to be a capacitive touch screen invented by E.A. Johnson at the Royal Radar Establishment, Malvern, UK, around 1965 – 1967. The inventor published a full description of touch screen technology for air traffic control in an article published in 1968.

1970s

In 1971, a “touch sensor” was developed by Doctor Sam Hurst (founder of Elographics) while he was an instructor at the University of Kentucky. This sensor called the “Elograph” was patented by The University of Kentucky Research Foundation. The “Elograph” was not transparent like modern touch screens, however, it was a significant milestone in touch screen technology. The Elograph was selected by Industrial Research as one of the 100 Most Significant New Technical Products of the Year 1973.
In 1974, the first true touch screen incorporating a transparent surface came on the scene developed by Sam Hurst and Elographics. In 1977, Elographics developed and patented a resistive touch screen technology, the most popular touch screen technology in use today.

In 1977, Siemens Corporation financed an effort by Elographics to produce the first curved glass touch sensor interface, which became the first device to have the name “touch screen” attached to it. On February 24, 1994, the company officially changed its name from Elographics to Elo TouchSystems.

1980s

In 1983, the computer manufacturing company, Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP-150, a home computer with touch screen technology. The HP-150 had a built in grid of infrared beams across the front of the monitor which detected finger movements. However, the infrared sensors would collect dust and require frequent cleanings.

1990s

The nineties introduced smart phones and handhelds with touch screen technology. In 1993, Apple released the Newton PDA, equipped with handwriting recognition; and IBM released the first smart phone called Simon, which featured a calendar, note pad, and fax function, and a touch screen interface that allowed users to dial phone numbers. In 1996, Palm entered the PDA market and advanced touch screen technology with its Pilot series.

2000s

In 2002, Microsoft introduced the Windows XP Tablet edition and started its entry into touch technology.

Note
Until today I use a Siemens T4010 Convertible running on the XP Tablet edition with a stylus and an incredible weight of 2.5 kg.
It just works, but it works more like a heater if you place it on your lap and because it’s running XP you have to take care of it’s health with an antibiotic therapy each week.

However, you could say that the increase in the popularity of touch screen smart phones defined the 2000s. In 2001 Mitsubishi launched the DiamondTouch (a human interface device that has the capability of allowing multiple people to interact simultaneously while identifying which person is touching where).

Various companies expanded upon these inventions in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The company Fingerworks developed various multi-touch technologies between 1999 and 2005, including Touchstream keyboards and the iGesture Pad. Several studies of this technology were published in the early 2000s by Alan Hedge, professor of human factors and ergonomics at Cornell University. Apple acquired Fingerworks and its multi-touch technology in 2005. In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone still seen as the king of smartphones with nothing but touch screen technology follwed by the iPad in 2010.

There are basically three components used in touch screen technology …

  • 1 The touch sensor is a panel with a touch responsive surface. Systems are built based on different types of sensors: resistive (most common), surface acoustic wave, and capacitive (most smart phones). However, in general sensors have an electrical current running through them and touching the screen causes a voltage change. The voltage change signals the location of the finger.
  • 2 The controller, is the hardware that converts the voltage changes on the sensor into signals the device can receive.
  • 3 Software tells the device what’s happening on the sensor and the information coming from the controller. Who is touching what and where; and allows the operating system and apps to react accordingly.
    To improve the features multi-touch was introduced to recognize the presence of two or more points of contact with the surface. This plural-point awareness is used to implement advanced functionality such as pinch to zoom.

Summary …

The iPad is in the line of disruptive innovations. It seems to become a tool supporting all areas of life, household, education, science, health, communication, etc. It’s for primates but still not for apes who grant preferences to other activities.

Related links …

Sensitiveness

The Post PC era

iPad attends meetings

iPad @ Universities

Troubleshooting touchscreen response

Thanks for stopping by.


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Categories : Apple, iPad, Productivity

Younity

28 03 2014

Younity by Entangled Media Corp. (USA) is an iOS app for remote access of files stored on local hard drives. A desktop companion app has to be installed on the computer to provide information about files and folders on iOS devices. The version I reviewed was 1.7.4 of 2013-12-19. The app is a free universal app that means, there is just one version for the iPhone and the iPad. The app was first released on Feb 1, 2012.

The company in it’s ‘About’ section …

Younity is brought to you by Entangled Media, a company focused on changing the relationship between people, data and devices. While we obviously design and build software/online services, we consider ourselves a user experience company. Our design philosophy is structured around user behavior and unlocking the potential we all see in the technology and content around us. That is, the potential for it to exist simultaneously everywhere for us to access easily and on demand.

Younity is similar to point.io but for local storages (Point.io offers access to several cloud storages with just one login; see my app review of Point.io under ‘Related links’). Younity doesn’t include remote control, it’s just intended for viewing or downloading files from remote computers.

The company about it’s app …

Younity gives you access to all your files, from all your devices, without ever needing to “sync” your mobile devices again. With younity, you have all your music, photos, videos and documents on all your devices regardless of storage. All your files, from all your devices, all the time. You can share any file, stored on any device, with any of your friends right from your iPhone or iPad. No planning ahead required!

Younity creates a personal cloud for all your files, generated by the stationary devices. The Personal Cloud is a private cloud – younity as the provider doesn’t store your files online, it can’t access them and doesn’t know anything about you or your files (promises the company).

You don’t have to log into each computer or browse them separately. You don’t have to put files in special folders or flag them to be synchronized. There is no storage limit because you are streaming files from your devices, so you can have 2GB, 2TB or 2PB of files. If you want to download your files to a local storage of an iOS device for offline use, you can, but it isn’t required. Younity gives you instant, easy access to all your music (including iTunes libraries/playlists), videos, photos and documents on every computer you own.

Installation …

Install Younity on your iOS devices and all computers you want to have access to.
Register for the service from within the apps by using an email address and and a password. It’s recommended to use the same registration procedure on all of your devices to avoid different authentications.

You will get a confirmation mail for every registered device.

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On the desktop companion app select the folders you want to have access to.
Younity then starts a scanning process to retrieve just basic information about files on the computer.

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Scanning an entire hard drive takes a long time.
I used a pretty fast Windows 7 PC with a 115 GB hard drive with 95 GB storage utilization and it took about 2 h to scan the drive and generate the meta data containing information about all locally stored files.

Note
Younity generates metadata files which are retrieved by the iOS device later after the scan process is complete. On a computer Younity will typically use about 0.1% of your computer CPU and usually uses less than 100MB of memory (although it will often report more because that is “reserved” for use if necessary). After the scan is complete Younity typically “listens” and updates the metadata if changes of file locations or file names are made. The iOS app then downloads the updated metadata.

When you first open Younity on an iPhone, after having registered at least one computer, younity will download metadata about your files. The speed at which it does this depends on your mobile hardware (i.e. newer mobile devices are much faster than older devices) and the number of files you have. For example, 30,000 files worth of metadata going to an iPhone 4S will take about 4 minutes with a 30 MBit/s WiFi connection, whereas an iPhone 5 will take about 3 minutes. If you have over 100,000 files (only photos, videos, music and documents), it may take a very long time.

The features …

Younity offers these basic features

  • Easily and securely share files with your friends via younity or Facebook.
  • Search for files across all devices simultaneously, without having to even know which device or cloud service (ie. dropbox, google drive, etc…) the file is stored on.
  • Converts unusable file formats (e.g. WMA, OGG, etc.) to iOS-compatible formats in real-time when you stream so you can keep your media in whatever format you like.
  • Compatible with iOS, Mac OS X, Windows and soon Linux.

If you need a file that is saved on a desktop computer Younity helps to view or even download the file to your iOS device for further actions e.g. mailing it to somebody, share it on Facebook, or use the iOS ‘Open in’ command to transfer it to an appropriate app.

The core value of Younity is that there is no need to intentionally sync files to make them available and that there is just one place to access all registered ressources.

First impressions …

After installing the app on an iOS device and entering the credentials you will see this Home Screen

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with the following settings

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A really useful ‘Search’ functionality is available which shows all files on your registered computers matching the search term. Searching within content is not supported.

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To display a file stored on a remote computer just tap on it and some standard actions are available.

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The cons …

I found the following cons in the actual version of Dec 2013:

  • 1 Complex MS Word/Excel files are not shown correctly.
    Apple’s iWork file formats for Keynote, Numbers, and Pages are supported.
  • 2 Many file types are not shown at all, e.g. exe, ini, cfg, etc. This is a bit confusing although they cannot be handled on an iOS device they should be shown in file lists.
  • 3 Really nerving is that if you tap on a file to display the content and return to the file list it’s not positioned on the file you choosed. So you always have to scroll within the file list of Younity to go to the next file.
  • 4 An option for sorting files is not available.
  • 5 Information about files is incomplete. If you start a file search the file list doesn’t show the device and folder where it’s located. Younity lets you filter views so that you can see only files that you’ve downloaded to local storage and/or only see files that are available (i.e. they are on a device that is online and ready to stream files), but you can not browse files on a per device basis.
  • 6 Uploads of files from an iOS device to a remote computer is not supported.

During my app review the iPhone version didn’t show all ressources of my Windows 7 PC.

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The problem couldn’t be solved although I removed the iPhone app, installed it, and registered the device again. The app showed the ‘Downloading metadata …’ message but still didn’t show the missing resources.

Summary …

The idea is pretty good but but there is still some work to do for the developers.
The main benefit compared to many other remote access apps is that there is just one place for accessing all computers.

Related links …

Point.io

TeamViewer

Apps for File Management

Thanks for stopping by.


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Categories : App Review, Filesharing, Productivity

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