He knows when you’re naughty and he knows when you’re nice. How does he know? Because he’s uses Apple’s iPhone 4S and Siri to help him find the answers. Recently Apple debuted a new commercial starring Jolly Old Saint Nick, and guess what kind of cell phone Santa uses?

“Directions to Raleigh, North Carolina.” Kris Kringle gets sleigh navigation from Siri. 

Jolly Voice Recognition
The iPhone 4S is used by hi-tech CEO’s and politicians, so it should be no surprise anyone that the world’s biggest gift giver also uses it. And why not, with Siri voice recognition you can easily access a library of information without lifting a finger. There are lots of cool things you can do with Siri - including checking the balance of your bank account and finding out where little Charlie Grant lives.

Check out the new Apple commercial for yourself:

What else did we find out from the Apple commercial? Santa has 3.7 billion appointments scheduled for Christmas Eve. Man, those reindeer are going to be tired.

Cleared for Take-Off
With an iPhone 4S in his pocket and the sleigh packed with gifts, Santa is almost ready to make his yearly trip. Santa One – Santa’s reindeer-guided sleigh – has been outfitted with new NextGen technology to make his journey even smoother and Santa has been cleared for flight by the FAA. The Federal Aviation Administration made the announcement Thursday. Santa will be flying at 50,000 feet and using his iPhone 4S for directions, so this year he’s sure to make his faster time ever!

“The satellite-based technology the elves have installed on Santa One will ensure that Santa stays safe and reaches all of his rooftops on time,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in the press release. “As a result of this improved technology, Santa will be able to deliver more presents to more children around the world.”

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Even though the cheapest iPad is $499, the iPad is still one of the most popular device on the market today and sets the standard for tablet computers. And while new devices like the Kindle Fire have sparked consumer interest, folks are still flocking to the iPad.

The iPad tops the list of the hottest gifts this season. 

The iPad easily tops the list as the must-have holiday gift of 2011 and based on industry analyst research, Apple will sell 13.5 million iPads in December alone. That’s more than an 84% increase over the same time last year and bring $8.26 billion in revenue to Apple.

iPad 3 Release Date
The iPad runs toe-to-toe with the iPhone as the most sought after Apple product. According to Gene Munster senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, “the iPad is appealing to more price-sensitive buyers, while the Mac has retained a premium appeal.”

Recent reports indicate a new iPad (what’s being called iPad 3) may hit the market as soon as February, but don’t hold your breath. The original iPad was released April 2010, and the iPad 2 was just released this past March 2011. Analyst say Apple would want to give the iPad 2 at least a year on the market.

iPad 3 Features
These are rumored features, keep in mind, Apple hasn’t announced anything officially:

• A high-resolution retina display like the the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Basically, the iPad 3 will double the screen resolution at 2048 x 1536
• Thinner, sleeker, losing 20 percent of the device’s current mass
• A better 5MP camera (maybe even a flash)
• Improved battery life
• Wireless charging technology
• A new A6 processor

 
Must-Have iPad
You shouldn’t let this put you off from buying an iPad 2 though. The iPad 2 is an incredible device, it features a front and rear facing camera and app development for the iPad is a booming business. More apps are available in the App Store than on Google’s Android, and they’re optimized for the iPad’s HD display.

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The iPad ranks at the top of almost everyone’s holiday shopping list as the must-have gadget of the season. The iPad is not only great for Mom & Dad, but for the whole family. And new accessories for the iPad make the device even more family friendly.

All kids want for Christmas are Apples – Apple products like the iPad, iPhone and iPod.

iWant – The Must Have Holiday Gift
According to a recent survey by Nielsen Research, the iPad and iPhone are the most sought after gadgets among kids. Nielsen surveyed 6 – 12 year olds, 44% of them want an iPad, 30% of them want an iPod touch and 27% want an iPhone. Parents can speak first hand to the demand, especially since kids (of all age) at some point eventually highjack mom or dad’s iPad.

And kids start playing with tech gadgets early – according to Common Sense Media, today 40% of 2 – 4 year olds have used a smartphone, tablet or portable multimedia device. The percentage raises considerable for 5 – 8 year olds, more than 50% of those kids have used those devices. More surprising? 10% of infants have used one of those devices prior to their first birthday.

Must Have Kids Accessories
It’s a do everything device with a big cool factor, so no wonder kids want to get their hands on it. Learning to build apps for Apple’s iPhone, iPad or iPod is a Christmas gift that will keep giving for a long time, until then you can certainly get by on these great accessories that make the iPad even cooler:

ion’s iCade turns your iPad into a retro arcade game machine.

iCade $99.99
Slip the iPad into the iCade and you’ve got a tabletop retro arcade. The joystick and buttons are quick and responsive and it’s solidly built. There’s another Atari-licensed arcade accessory but it isn’t built like the iCade, which features a hardwood cabinet like the old-school standup coin-op machines. There’s even a faux coin slot for collecting quarters. For fans of old school arcade machines (who don’t want to hunt down or pay for an antique machine), this is the perfect gift.

Disney Spotlight Microphone $99.99
Do you have a closet Selena Gomez or Miley Cyrus at home? Make them a star with Disney’s Spotlight Microphone – the wireless mic turns the iPad into a karaoke machine. Record your own music video while performing, plus the Karaoke app allows you to polish your performance with reverb, echo and provides vocal warm-ups too.

Keep the kids entertained while on the go with the Crayola iMarker. 

Crayola iMarker – ColorStudioHD $29.99
Turn your iPad into a coloring book – but without marking up your iPad’s screen with crayons. Using the iMarker stylus (which looks like an oversized crayon), kids can freely doodle or color pre-drawn pages using the ColorStudioHD app which is available free with the iMarker. Drawings come to life with animations and based on initial testing it looks like every color in the Crayola box has been included too!

Cars 2 Appmates $12.99 – $14.99
Disney teamed up Spin Master toys for Appmates, a toy that interacts with the iPad, with the first set of Appmates toys based on the Cars 2 movie. All parents have to do is download the free app and buy the car packs, kids then can “drive” on different courses using the Appmates car. The Cars license, fun mini-games and Disney quality animations set the Appmates apart from accessories pack.

Griffin’s HELO Touch lets you control a helicopter using your iPad or iPhone. 

HELO TC (Touch-Controller) RC Helicopter  $49.99
For older kids, Griffin’s remote-controlled toy helicopter is just the ticket. The app is free and turns your iPad touchscreen into a helicopter controller. The helicopter fits in the palm of your hand and can do the same tricks as models costing three times more. RC helicopters like this eventually crash, but thankfully for parents Griffin offers replacement parts like propellor blades and more at their website, so you can keep your copter flying without buying another one.

Apps (and Apples) for the Holidays 
Apple’s iPad and iPhones are more popular than ever, so it’s no surprise they’ve found their way into the $22 billion toy market. According to Gartner Research, Apple expects to double the number of iPhones sold this year, bringing the total to 90.6 million worldwide – the number of iPads is expected to triple, topping 46.7 million. What do those numbers mean? Most likely you’ll be filling a stocking or placing an Apple product on your gift giving list this holiday season too.

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So you’ve got a new iPhone 4S and you’ve already started putting Siri, apple’s voice recognition technology, through her paces with commands like: ”Can you find me a good Chinese restaurant?” or “Who’s on first?”

You ask, she tells. Need to find the nearest local dry cleaner? Siri knows. Hungry for the best Indian food in Dayton, Ohio? Ask Siri. Ready to tweet out your status? Siri can do that, too. She’s a do-it-all digital personal assistant.

Siri’s Serious Muscle
Siri’s a master communicator; she currently recognizes and “speaks” three languages (English, French and German), but within a year, Siri will also support Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Korean and Italian. Another cool trick: through the iPhone 4S, Siri will take any words you speak and convert them into text.

Siri depends on the processing power of the dual-core A5 chip in the iPhone 4S. Siri also uses 3G, Wi-Fi and Apple’s data centers to find the answers to your questions. With all that processing power, it’s not surprising that users, developers and hackers are all experimenting with Siri’s capabilities. Siri already does plenty of things, like making telephone calls, finding business locations, searching the Internet and scheduling appointment reminders. But Siri can do so much more.

Cool Things You Do With Siri

Update Your Twitter Feed
Want to update your Twitter status but your thumbs are too lazy? In your Contacts list, under the name “Twitter” add 40404. Now text “START” to that number. When you’re prompted, respond with your username and password. Any time you want to tweet, simply tell Siri to “Text Twitter.”

Update Your Facebook
Use Siri to update Facebook in a similiar way. Just add “Facebook” to your contacts and assign the number 32665. Now tell Siri to “Text Facebook” with your update.

Check Your Bank Balance
If updating your Facebook or Twitter status isn’t enough, you can also use Siri to do your banking. It’s true; you can easily learn how to set up Siri to check your bank balance or send money to your friends.

Play Music 
SiriTunes lets you search for music using Siri and it even works if you don’t have Siri. Listen to whatever you like, whenever you like.

Learning How to Hack Apps
There are plenty of other great Siri hacks and tricks you can perform with Siri, although some require jailbreaking your iPhone 4S. No matter how you approach it, this great new technology is just begging to be explored. Learning how to program apps for iPhone 4S and the iPad or for other handheld platforms (like Google’s Android) can change your life.

Want to prepare yourself for a career in app development? Why not start by spending next summer at a computer summer camp like Digital Media Academy? DMA provides expert, hands-on instruction in subjects like app development for the iPhone and uses the iOS for development in its iPhone App courses. Who knows? You could make the next Siri.

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Apple Inc. updated its MacBook Pro line of laptop computers on Monday. The update was made with little fanfare; the machines will keep their current style and price points, but now offer faster processors and better graphics.

The new MacBook Pros feature the same familiar styling but revved-up processors and better graphics. 

The line is based on a trio of MacBook Pros, each of which are powered by Apple‘s Mac OS X Lion operating system:

• The 13-inch MacBook Pro and it’s being offered in two configurations: a 2.4-gigahertz dual-core Intel i5 processor priced at $1,199 and a 2.8-gigahertz dual-core Intel i7 chip available for slightly more.
• Stepping up to the next model, the 15-inch MacBook Pro (starting price: $1,799) features a 2.2-gigahertz quad-core Intel i7 processor and a 500-gigabyte hard drive. Like the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, the interim model has an Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphic card, but also sports an AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics card that has 512 megabytes of dedicated memory.
• The 17-inch MacBook Pro (which starts at $2,499) contains a 2.4-gigahertz Intel Core i7 processor and AMD’s hot new Radeon HD 6770M graphics card.

As you can see, the updated line is pushing its stronger graphics capabilities, as well as its faster processors. The end result for users is that tasks can be accomplished more quickly and the graphics are not only more eye-pleasing but will also enable faster video playback that’s more stable…which makes the new PowerBooks ideal for anyone (such as filmmakers and other creative professionals) who might be using Apple’s Final Cut Pro video-editing software or programs such as Adobe Photoshop.

Apple’s offering the updated MacBook Pro in three models. (Check out the new MacBook Pro specs.)

Test Drive a New MacBook 
Want to get your hands on one of these new machines? Do it while you’re also learning something cool under the watchful eye of a seasoned Apple pro. At Digital Media Academy‘s computer summer camps, students use the latest Apple technology in almost every course and summer camp. DMA offers a wide variety of programs that are located on many of America’s greatest college campuses and they use only the latest state-of-the-art technology, like the new Apple MacBook Pros.

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Steve Jobs’ official biography has been released. Written by Walter Isaacson, a former managing editor for Time magazine, the 656-page book sells for $35. You can get Steve Jobs’ official biography from Amazon and as an ebook from Google for $16.99.

Steve Jobs was memorialized on Apple’s website for several weeks after his death.

Life and Legacy
While the initial global outpouring of grief over the death of Apple’s co-founder has begun to subside, the public’s fascination with Jobs’ life is still going strong. Part of that interest stems from Jobs’ personality – which was often described as reserved, private and even reclusive.

He rarely granted interviews and when he did, they were almost exclusively focused on whatever project he was engaged in creating and promoting at the time. In a media-driven age empowered by mighty communication tools (many Jobs himself had pioneered), there was much about his own life that the man chose not to publicly communicate.

In his final years though, Jobs did however open up for his biography. Based on more than 40 interviews Isaacson conducted with Jobs during a two-year period, and additional interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors and colleagues. And although Jobs cooperated for the book, he asked for no control over what was written, nor did he even ask for the right to read it before it was published.

For those keenly interested in Steve Jobs’ legacy, Isaacson’s biography may end up being the last, best word on the subject. Other Steve Jobs quotes have appeared in the press, but the newly released interview text is sure to shake up some readers.

Revelations and Secrets
The new book reveals some interesting, expected and not-so-expected insights. The most controversial discovery involves Jobs’ 2011 meeting with President Barack Obama, at which time Jobs reportedly said that Obama was “headed for a one-term presidency” and at one point even offered to design portions of the President’s re-election campaign.

Here are a few more excerpts that have surfaced in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs…

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had a love-hate relationship. Their appearance together onstage at D5 in 2007 became the origin of the Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates meme. 

On Microsoft’s Bill Gates: “Basically unimaginative and has never invented anything…he just shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas.”

On Google’s Android Phone: “I will go thermonuclear on this issue. I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.” Though Jobs received criticism for his tight control over the iPhone ecosystem, which contrasts sharply with Android’s “open” approach, he told Isaacson that Apple’s approach stemmed from the company’s desire to “make great products, not crap like Android.” Isaacson writes in the book that Jobs had attempted to persuade Google not to develop a mobile operating system to rival Apple’s own by promising the company it would have access to the iPhone and prime real estate on the device.

On the Dangers of Becoming Wealthy: “I saw a lot of other people at Apple, especially after we went public, how it changed them. And a lot of people thought that they had to start being rich. I mean, a few people went out and bought Rolls Royces, and they bought homes, and their wives got plastic surgery. I saw these people who were really nice simple people turn into these bizarro people. And I made a promise to myself. I said ‘I’m not gonna let this money ruin my life.’”

On Facebook: ”You know we talk about social networks in the plural but I don’t see anybody other than Facebook out there…Facebook – they’re dominating this. I admire Mark Zuckerberg. I only know him a little bit, but I admire him for not selling out. For wanting to make a company. I admire that a lot.”

On Why He “Opened Up” for Isaacson’s Biography: “I wanted my kids to know me. I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”

Steve Jobs with wife Laurene Powell Jobs, just before his death. 

Notes From the Author
Isaacson’s previous books include biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger, both of whom were powerful and often misunderstood men of their respective times. “(Steve) talked a lot to me about what happened when he got sick and how it focused him,” said Isaacson, in a transcript from an upcoming segment of “60 Minutes.”

Isaacson also spoke about Jobs’ state of mind during his final days. “He said he no longer wanted to go out, no longer wanted to travel the world,” said Isaacson. “He would focus on the products. He knew the couple of things he wanted to do, which was the iPhone and then the iPad. He had a few other visions. I think he would’ve loved to have conquered television.” (It’s true, Apple insiders have noted Jobs’ was always disappointed Apple TV wasn’t more widely accepted.)

Constantly out of step and sporting a rebel sensibility, Isaacson reported that Jobs often thought the usual rules didn’t apply to him, and worked counter to them. For example, he went through a period as a young man during which he didn’t bathe regularly (his managers at Atari made him work the night shift because his co-workers complained about his personal hygiene). Another quirk: driving a Mercedes with no license plate. Why? According to Isaacson, it was because he didn’t want people tracking him.

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iTunes made the record store digital, the iPhone took communication into the space age, and Siri (pronounced Sir-ree) is Apple’s latest step toward our technological future.

Siri, a voice recognition feature that Apple developed for iPhone 4S, allows iPhone users to quickly access information just by asking your phone. 

Science Fiction, Science Fact 
The iPhone 4S is the fastest selling iPhone ever. AT&T reported it activated a million of the devices over a three-day period. And now those million-plus people are asking Siri for weather reports, restaurant recommendations and to text their wife. But did you know that Apple actually created the Siri back in 1987? Really. And then it was called the Knowledge Navigator.

Think of it like the Jetsons’ version of Google. Don’t believe us? See for yourself:

Apple also predicted when the technology would come to market, way back in 1987. Take a close look at the dates in the Knowledge Navigator video; the professor is looking for a paper from 2006, “about five years ago.” The date on the professor’s calendar is September 16. That would make it September 16, 2011. Apple predicted the technology – a natural-language voice assistant (built into a touchscreen Apple device) – but missed the date…but by only a month.

Can You Hear Me Now?
The Star Trek talking computer we grew up with as science fiction is now science fact. Voice recognition is considered the pinnacle of technology control.

But voice-controlled technology represents problems, though. People and their voices are unique, we pronounce words differently, and in many cases, with a regional accent. Apple believes the voice technology it has created is advanced enough to work. And, amusingly, it does.

Apple’s Siri voice recognition, still in beta, is a natural language-based voice assistant built into iOS 5 and at the center of the iPhone 4S features.

People have been putting Siri to the test across the U.S., asking her to “open the pod bay doors.” (See how 2001: A Space Odyssey predicted the future.)

It’s amazing to see what people do with technology and even more amazing to see what developers can do with smartphones these days. App development for iPhone and iPad is big business and consumers keep the demand high for apps and cutting-edge technology, such as Siri.

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Apple’s former CEO was recognized as a technology innovator. He reinvented media distribution, and pioneered technology with products like the iPhone 4S and iPad. But what Steve Jobs was not known for was his fashion sense.

Steve Jobs in Paris in 1998, introducing the new iMac.

Unlike his hi-tech hardware, Steve Jobs stuck to routine fashion –  like a black turtleneck, Levi’s 501 jeans and New Balance sneakers. But Jobs didn’t always dress that way; in the 1980s he sported bowties and even vests.

Image Conscious
In the late 1990s, Steve Jobs started wearing black turtlenecks and sneakers. The outfit would ultimately make him the most recognizable CEO in the world. At times his plain and predictable look was parodied on Saturday Night Live and even The Simpsons, but Apple’s famous co-founder probably would have never adopted his trademark outfit if his employees hadn’t rejected the corporate uniform he wanted them to wear.

Pixar paid tribute to Steve Jobs with this image featuring Woody, Wall-E, Buzz Lightyear and other famous Pixar stars dressed in Jobs’ signature black turtleneck.

In Walter Isaacson’s new authorized biography of Steve Jobs, Jobs revealed to Issacson in an interview before his death how the late Apple CEO developed his trademark look. The new book (which releases October 24) is the culmination of forty interviews that were conducted with Jobs over a two-year period. The book is also said to include  interviews that took place just weeks before Jobs’ death on October 5.

From Issacson’s book, courtesy of Gawker:

On a trip to Japan in the early 1980s, Jobs asked Sony’s chairman Akio Morita why everyone in the company’s factories wore uniforms. He told Jobs that after the war, no one had any clothes, and companies like Sony had to give their workers something to wear each day. Over the years, the uniforms developed their own signature styles, especially at companies such as Sony, and it became a way of bonding workers to the company. “I decided that I wanted that type of bonding for Apple,” Jobs recalled.

Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple. Jobs recalled, “I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”

In the process, however, he became friends with Miyake and would visit him regularly. He also came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style. “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.” Jobs noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. “That’s what I wear,” he said. “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”

Wholly Original
While Steve Jobs may have been seen as a fashion oddball, his style was called ”wholly original” by acclaimed designer Ralph Rucci. No matter if you were a fan of his style or not, he certainly was an original.

More insight into the life of Steve Jobs will be revealed with his first and only biography, which hits stores in October.

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Apple must now begin the process of surviving as a company without Steve Jobs. It will be a daunting task, but one that should be made easier by the fact that Jobs himself left behind blueprints of sorts, for both the success of the company and for the executives that would follow him.

Steve Jobs with wife Laurene Powell, after his last public keynote. 

Among those plans are outlines for products that Jobs believed would be part of the company’s future – plans he personally worked on for more than a year.

Plans for the Future
Even though he was dying, Jobs worked tirelessly on Apple’s future. He worked hard to develop the plans for Apple’s futuristic headquarters in Cupertino, California, and get them approved, going so far as to defy doctors. Steve Jobs last public appearance was to pitch the spaceship-like designs to the Cupertino City Council last June.

In addition to the giant new Apple complex – which will sit on the old Hewlett Packard site (where Jobs worked part-time when he was 13 years old) – Jobs had also been supervising the development of iCloud, and contributing ideas to update the iPhone, iPad, MacBook and iPod. According to sources inside Apple, there are at least four years worth of new Apple products, thanks to Jobs.

Steve Jobs DNA to live on with Apple University
Another secret project that Jobs worked on was an executive training program called Apple University. The program, which Jobs considered vital to Apple’s future success, will teach Apple executives to think like Steve Jobs. Sources familiar with the program say Jobs personally recruited the dean of Yale’s Business School, Joel Podolny, to develop it, way back in 2008.

“Apple needed a set of educational materials so that Apple employees could learn to think and make decisions as if they were Steve Jobs.” Tim Bajarin is an Apple analyst. So it really is no surprise that, when Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2005, he was already thinking about his legacy.

It’s said that the inspiration for Apple University came out of Jobs’ admiration for Bill Hewlett and David Packard, and the way they built Hewlett and Packard into a tech giant. HP’s values or “the HP Way” were highly admired in the 80s and 90s.

Jobs wanted to establish something similar with Apple University. The program would help Apple executives and regular employees continue to innovate and drive Apple’s success. This included attention to detail, accountability, perfectionism, simplicity and of course, secrecy.  Jobs wanted to see if the creation of university-level courses would translate into the best business and operating strategies.

Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs and John Lasseter at Pixar.

One example of what Jobs hoped for is already running at Pixar. Jobs sold Pixar to Disney in 2006 for $7.5 billion. Pixar University is a professional development program that offers courses in fine arts and filmmaking as well as leadership and management training. The program also provides company history, culture and values.

Steve Jobs oversaw the most incredible corporate turnaround in Silicon Valley history. After returning to Apple in 1997, he was in charge of every major decision Apple made, from the launch of iPod to the iPad 2.

A Future without Jobs 
Jobs, the famed co-founder of Apple, died last week of pancreatic cancer. Pre-orders for the authorized Steve Jobs biography have shot through the roof since. Apple definitely wants to continue building on Jobs’ achievements. The iPhone alone is a multi-billion dollar business and app development for iDevices is a requirement for anyone in the tech field these days. It will be a challenge for Apple to maintain its success without Jobs’ leadership, but not impossible. No other CEO or company has analyzed its success so closely – or developed a plan to continue that success after their leader was gone.

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At the “Let’s Talk iPhone” event on Tuesday, Apple unveiled its next generation iPhone, the iPhone4S, but Apple was also talking about iPads, iCloud and apps, too.

Apple’s iPad pilot program for schools has put iPads in classrooms, in every state in the U.S. new schools are being equipped with iPads according to a recent article in the NYTimes. Photo via NYTimes. 

Apple has been pushing innovation not only in the technology space, but innovating schools and business. Apple’s latest phone features voice recognition and while it’s an incredible technological step, the company is full steam ahead on all fronts.

Tim Cook, Apple’s new CEO, got a laugh for saying airplane pilots use of iPads makes airplanes more efficient. But it’s true; the FAA approved the use of the device and apps like ForeFlight. Hospitals are testing iPads, too. In fact, 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies are supposedly “testing or deploying” the iPad in their workplaces. And the amount of schools and summer camps using iPads has dramatically increased.

In addition to the new iPhone 4S, the Apple event was a chance for Apple to toot its own horn and talk about these innovations and outreach. And Apple continues to surprise us with its unique train of thought.

Instead of iPhone 5, Apple introduced…Apple Cards???

Digital Goes Analog 
Apple has surpassed 250 million sales of iOS devices. That’s iPads, iPod touches and iPhones. Apps make these devices truly shine. The App Store features some 140,000 for the iPad alone, with more than 500,000 total apps. More than a billion of them are downloaded every month. Leave it to Apple to introduce one that helps you send a greeting or holiday card. The Apple Cards app lets you create paper printed cards – right from your iPhone or iPad.

Cards are sent with a special postal mark barcode – when they’re scanned at the destination, you get a text message the card has arrived.

If no one else was excited about the Apple Cards announcement, we’re sure the Postmaster General is since traditional postal mail use is significantly down. People still prefer to send cards the old fashioned way, however.

High Above the iCloud 
In the future we’ll all be storing docs in the Cloud. Think of anything you save – a document, picture or song. It all goes in the Cloud. Google Docs has done this for some time, so it’s no surprise to see Apple follow suit by promoting iCloud.

Apple’s iCloud allows the storage of any file type, and serves up all your media on all your iDevices – MacBook, iPhone and tablet. When you sign up, you get 5GB for your mail and docs, and pay an additional $20/$50/$100 more a year for added storage. Users get unlimited storage for photos and music. Using iCloud allows Apple to see all the music you own, and maybe even if you paid for it or not.

But iCloud does allow you to share your media across your many devices, which could come in handy for work or home.

The Core of Apple 
Apple’s doing what it has always done; revolutionizing technology to make your life easier and more productive. Siri, the voice recognition software for your iPhone 4S, is billed as a personal assistant. The iCloud makes moving your media easier. Apple Cards let you send a mailed greeting card right from your phone. Apple is revolutionizing the way we live our lives. And owning an iPhone or iPad isn’t the only to get involved with the Apple revolution. Learning app development for iDevices is a great way to get started with the Apple iOS, too. You don’t have to work for Apple to change the world.

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