Apple Keynotes- My personal geek World Series

By Kris Walsh

For most people, there are important events that they look forward to, Superbowl, The World Series, Sales, hunting seasons… As many of you know, I am a big geek and my occasions that I look forward to are not the same as many others. My occasions are E3, where new video games and consoles are announced, and Apple Keynotes, where new Apple products are presented and released. Today was one of those days, so I begged Phil to allow me to steal his turn to blog so I can blog about one of my favorite geeky days of the year. Reluctantly, he let me have his turn.

Today was the fall Apple keynote presentation. This is where the new versions of the iphone were released, along with a showing of the new features in ios7, the latest version of the operating system that runs the iphone, ipod touch, and ipad.

As expected, Apple released information regarding the new iphones, the 5s and the 5c.

The 5s is the new top of the line phone. It comes in these prices with 2 year contract- $199-16GB, $299-32GB, $399-64GB. It comes in 3 colors- space gray, silver and gold. It will be available on September 20th. This new iPhone contains some new technology. A fingerprint scanner in the home button that can be used to unlock the phone and to authenticate for purchases of apps or other content, so no passwords needed. In addition it has a new processor and upgraded camera.

The 5C replaces the 5 and is basically a more colorful version of the 5. It has all of the same specs and capabilities of the 5, but is wrapped in a seamless plastic shell that comes in several colors- green, white, blue, pink and yellow. While not as powerful as the 5S it is about half the price- $99-16GB, $199-32GB.

The 4S is now free with contract and the 4 and 5 have both been discontinued.

ios7 will be supported on iPhone 4 and up, iPad 2 and up (including mini), and 5th gen ipod touch. It will be a free update and will be released on September 18th. The most noticeable difference is the color and feel of the os as a whole has changed.

• The camera app has several improvements and allows content to be grouped by time and location when photos were taken. It includes filters like instagram right in the camera app. It also has burst mode (5s only) where you can take up to 10 frames a second and it helps you pick out the best frames to use as photos. Great for action shots! You can also take slow motion video.

• New and improved Notification Center and Control panel. Swipe down from any screen to see your notifications, swipe up to access many commonly used controls

• iTunes Radio is a new service that comes along with the update that is similar to Pandora

• Siri can now search Twitter and Wikipedia

• All 5 of the iWork apps are free for new device purchases (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie)

• There are many new behind the scenes features that can make managing multiple iPads much easier for businesses and schools

• Many 3rd party apps are being redesigned to include new features of ios7. Look out for app store updates for many other apps soon… wait, you won’t have to, ios7 will automatically take care of your updates for you. No more red numbers begging you to update!
  
  

I wanted to take this chance to review how to lock someone into a certain app.

This is a very helpful tool in the classroom and with young children who you want to have control over what they are viewing. I would be glad to help you with doing this if it is something that you are interested in. Here are some directions should you want to try on your own. This will not work on a first generation ipad. (You can skip this section if you already know how to do this.)

1. In settings, go to general, scroll almost all the way to the bottom and select accessibility. Halfway down that menu you will see something labeled guided access. Make sure that it is marked yes. You will have to select a 4 digit password.

2. Open the app that you want the student to use.

3. Click the home button 3 times and a frame comes up. To start guided access, click start in the upper right corner.

4. The student can use the app but not exit out and get into anything else.

5. When finished with the app, click 3 times again, enter the 4 digit code that you entered back in settings menu, and click end. The ipad will function normally again.

Advanced- If you are having a student use a website, when you do your first triple click to start the guided access and before you click start, circle the navigation bar at the top of the page. This will keep students from entering other web addresses, going back or setting up a new page.

I hope that you enjoyed this update about the new ios features coming our way. Most of the education focused improvements are behind the scenes, but I look forward to seeing what developers can do with the new tools that they have been given. Let us know if we can assist you in making this transition!