American Airlines announced on Monday that it has deployed more than 8,000 iPads and is now using Apple's touchscreen tablet as an electronic flight bag in the cockpit of its entire fleet of airplanes.
Via: AppleInsider.com
A few years ago, Apple introduced the ability for end users to purchase additional in-app enhancements to a game or other types of apps. Â Since then, parents have been getting giant credit card bills for unauthorized in-app purchases that their kids or even children have made when inside an app.
Several lawsuits about this feature had followed saying that Apple hadn't done enough to prevent unauthorized in-app purchasing.
Now, Apple appears to be laying out settlements between them and disgruntled iOS users.
A new web site is now online which details the settlement and what Apple is going to do to settle this case.
The web site can be found here.
Back in May, I wrote about how to start your own blog. Â Because I have gotten a lot of questions since then, I will try and answer them in this post (oh, by the way, thank you for your comments and questions. Â Please keep them coming!!!)
Q: What type of software are you using?
A: I am using the latest version of Wordpress, the #1 blogging software.
Q: Where can I get more information?
A: Just go to http://www.wordpress.com or http://www.wordpress.org.
Q: What options does Wordpress.com have for me?
A: Wordpress.com is the company that makes Wordpress and is the main host company for it. Â They have two options for users - 1) A free option, and 2) A paid option. Â The free option lets a user select a limited number of templates and add-ons for the user's web site. Â The paid option gives you more options for your blog.
Q: Are there any other blogging options other than Wordpress?
A: Yep.  Just go to Bing or Google.com and do a search for "blogging software".
Q: Does Wordpress.com limit me with what I can put on my blog?
A: Not in terms of content. Â But in terms of adding Banner Ads or external resources to the site.
Q: Did you design the web site yourself?
A: No. Â But I modified a ready-made template provided by a 3rd party developer.
Q: What is a template?
A: A Wordpress template gives you the basic design of the web site. Â If you wish to modify it, you'll have to look for options that are inside the template that lets a user modify it - either by CSS, HTML, Java, etc.
Q: Uh-oh! Â Do I have to know CSS, HTML, etc. to operate Wordpress?
A: Nope. Â Although it can be a bonus if you wish to take your site beyond the standard design, a lot of templates lets a user modify its design by easy to follow menus.
That's it for now. Â I will be updating this document often, so stay tuned.
Via: CNN/Money:"I kept thinking what I could have done to stop this," said Froom. Two years after that traumatic event, Froom and his college buddy Sean Simone had invented a solution that has the potential to make millions -- an iPhone case that doubles as a 650,000-volt stun gun.
Touch the device to someone and it can deliver a shock that causes significant discomfort, ranging from mild to extreme pain, Simone said. To prevent an accidental discharge, users first have to flip two safety switches and then press an activation button, he said.
Yellow Jacket, the company Simone and Froom founded, has sold thousands of the cases since February through retail stores and its website. The cases, which retail for $139.99 each, aren't sold in states where stun guns are banned, and customers must be 18 or older.
The cases fit iPhone 4/4S models and come in black, white, pink and yellow. More options are coming later in the year.
The roots of Simone and Froom's business partnership go back six years. The two, now both 24, met in 2007 as freshmen at Louisiana State University, where Simone was a business student and Froom was studying architecture. They soon found they shared an entrepreneurial spirit and would often talk about starting a business in the future.
His junior year, Simone launched a networking group called SeNSE to help young entrepreneurs in Louisiana. By then, Froom had left college to join the Army. But the friends stayed in touch, many times just to bounce business ideas off each other.
In January 2011, Froom took temporary leave from the military so he and Simone could try to develop an idea they had for an RFID tracker that would help people find misplaced personal items. But that business idea never got off the ground.
In August, Froom was robbed in his home. He thought a lot about that day, and how the robber yanked the iPhone out of his hand but left the case behind.
That one detail triggered an idea. What if he could turn a smartphone case into a defensive weapon? Froom used his design background to develop the concept. Simone laughed when he first heard the idea, he said, but soon he was on board.
Together they finessed the concept and its design. They pitched the idea at a business competition at LSU the following year, and won $5,500. That money went to filing a patent application for the case and preparing a marketing video.
They soon needed more startup capital. They approached crowdfunding site Kickstarter, but were turned down "because our product is a weapon," said Simone. In June 2012, they took their campaign to rival Indiegogo, and in 45 days, reached their target of raising $100,000.
They found a manufacturer in China, and started selling the cases earlier this year. Sales have already reached nearly $250,000.
The Yellow Jacket case has a built-in charger for the iPhone. Last month, Yellow Jacket won an MFi (Made for iPhone) development license, essentially an Apple (AAPL,Fortune 500) seal of approval for iPhone, iPad and iPod accessories.
Yellow Jacket also has had preliminary talks with Apple to identify potential new customers for the cases -- they're now thinking of creating a model targeted to law enforcement.
They also plan to expand beyond Apple, expecting to launch versions for Samsung's Galaxy S3 and S4 models in September. Those cases will feature a stun gun that detaches -- an innovation they plan to roll out for the iPhone 5 case they're developing as well. The new products could push sales over $1 million by the end of the year, Simone said.
Said Simone, "There are so many possibilities and so much room to grow."
