Gadgetory

what's up i'm brian Tong and welcome to the apple byte it's all the good the bad and everything inside the world of apple now we're back from Las Vegas I've taken a shower from that dirty dirty place and now my skin is smooth as butter now Apple dropped a whole bunch of news at the recent education event in New York and let's start with the iBooks update it's now called I books too and it will support digital textbooks from three major textbook publishers that use interactive slideshows videos and 3d images for a more engaging textbook experience there's currently only eight books available that start at 1499 and they're targeting the K through 12 market it's a nice push for the digital classroom but reinventing the education system is going to take a lot more than just a 15 buck interactive book with an iPad that has a current entry-level price of four hundred and ninety-nine dollars now teachers will need to be trained differently to shape their curriculum around this new digital format and guess what not everyone is going to have an iPad unless Apple starts giving them away and you can bet they won't now you can beat the hell out of a textbook but you can't beat up an iPad and this could also create even a greater digital divide for iPad haves and have-nots now my take I really like the idea my parents and sister are all educators but this is just a small step in the right direction and the digital classroom in public education is still years and years away what if you want to create your own books Apple is making the iBooks Author app free for all mac OS 10 line users and only lion users how convenient but think of it as keynote and pages fuse together for book creation it will include apple design templates text charts and shapes the ability to add multi-touch functionality and you can add your own javascript and HTML widgets and the ability most importantly to upload your book directly to the iBookstore for purchases by complete strangers now it's bringing book publishing to the consumer Apple's way and finally i can bring the brian Tong autobiography to the masses that's right eat your heart out Walter Isaacson you should have taken my call now in the last piece of education use iTunes U gets its own free app giving students and non-students access to course material including video content and documentation and notes you'll still have to purchase the actual textbooks for most the class but itunes u becomes a go-to hub for college professors and students and allows them to post messages send out assignments and more for example i'm learning about volcanoes right now whoa Thanks itunes you all right let's take a quick break with a how to tip for using your iphone as a keyboard and mouse hey guys Sharon Vaknin here to show you how a free app turns your iphone into a keyboard and mouse that you can use to control your computer from a distance the use for this might not be obvious but with this setup you can connect your computer to your TV and leisurely navigate from the couch or even use your iPhone or any iOS device as a PowerPoint remote to get started head to logic calm / touch mouse on your Mac or PC select your OS from the drop-down hit download software and complete the installation now open the new app and grab your iPhone first make sure you're currently on the same Wi-Fi network as your computer that's how your iPhone will communicate with your computer now from the App Store download touch mouse when you launch it select your computer from the list on the screen and you can start controlling your computer right away to use the mouse drag one finger around on the virtual trackpad select tap once or select Center to scroll drive two fingers up and down the trackpad and to prompt the keyboard tap this icon here there is also a bunch of settings to play with so tap the Settings button and adjust the app to your liking for instance you might want to adjust the scrolling speed or change the clicking sounds whenever you're done with the app or want to switch computers just have this disconnect button here and you didn't hear this from me but quickly installing the touch mouse server on a friends computer opens doors to a lot of fun pranking thanks for that Sharon and that prank has already come in pretty handy alright let's talk apple patents because we're not going to talk about then you make believe iPad rumors that drop every week including one from a co2 car that says they'll be announcing a new iPad in February that's way too soon and if they do I will shave off my armpit hair and mail it in a baggie for the person who wants it I know you're out there now there are plenty of you who want apple to release the perfect dream TV and patently Apple reports the big a has been granted a patent relating to a method of organizing episodic content such as TV shows on in Apple TV media menu items could correspond to television shows that have either been recorded from a broadcast or purchased from a content provider it could be nothing or it could mean DVR capabilities yep in the next Apple TV the patent also mentions an Apple TV working with a cable network it was filed in 2006 and Steve Jobs is listed as one of its inventors another patent that has not been granted yet involves taking Syria to another level and hopes to give users the ability to purchase items from online stores using only their voice is being referred to as the intelligent automated assistant and Syria in its current form cannot make purchases yet the finally also suggests it could be used in Apple's iTunes and App Store's but Siri could also be integrated with online retailers to purchase through a retailer like Best Buy and then pick up their goods at a local store now the Apple and Android battle continues but a new survey by Nielsen finds that the Cupertino kids are finally closing the gap Nielsen found over the last three months that customers who purchased a smartphone in the past three months well 44.5 percent of them bought iPhones compared to the 46.9 who purchase an android phone now that's significant because in an October study just over twenty-five percent of people said they went with the iPhone while 61.6 percent went with Android and if you listen to Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in an interview with Daily Beast comparing I phones with android phones the wasps said my primary phone is the iphone I love the beauty of it but I wish it did all the things my android does I really do and you know what he's absolutely right I also like the woz because I got a chance to dance with them a few years ago and there we go in the I swing gets a little it's all in the hips okay check us out see if you do this head go like this oh my gosh of course Oh dancing with the walk and he's a really super nice teddy bear kind of guy all right guys last story and sad news that realistic scary-looking Steve Jobs doll we told you about it looks like the Creator is shelving the project after intense legal pressure from apple and Steve Jobs his family probably a good idea so the fully poseable doll you've all been waiting for is no longer reality and I'm sorry all right that's going to do it for this week's show email us at the apple byte at cnet com we'll get to emails when we can and we keep our favorites I'm Brian Tom thanks for watching I will catch you guys next time for another bite of the Apple oh I didn't see you there perfect 60