Is it time for Apple to be split up?

Every time a company gets very big, the question arises as to whether it is time to split the company up. The question has been brought up about Microsoft for years. Tim Cook has even alluded to the idea in the past, when mentioning the Macintosh business was bigger than many whole companies and that if Apple split its three divisions, they would each be Fortune 500 companies by themselves.

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Cosmos Story Vol1 – App Review

As an amateur astronomer and a volunteer with Project ASTRO, I regularly use the concept of scale to help teach astronomy and engage our students in visualizing and grasping the immensity of our universe. I typically use examples scaled in the dimension of physical length, area, and volume to assist in illustrating the distance and sizes of planets, our solar system and neighboring stars and galaxies.

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OS X Support Essentials, Cover

OS X Support Essentials (Apple Pro Training Series) – Review

As has become standard for titles of this weight and authority (the Apple Pro Training Series is justly widely respected), it’s divided into broad sections – nine in this case. Each has between two and five chapters, or “Lessons”. These vary in length from half a dozen pages (the “About this guide” one at the start) to 50 (two very thorough explorations of networks). Other longer lessons cover application installation, configuration and troubleshooting.

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OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual – Review

Many years ago, David Pogue was present at Macworld Expo in Boston when an attendee opened a new software box. The guy was seriously disappointed that all he got for his money was a CD. This turned out to be Pogue’s Eureka! moment. It was also the birth of the Missing Manual series that now numbers over 150 books by a diverse group of knowledgeable authors. As he says in his latest book, “It’s a good thing you’ve got a book about OS X in your hands, because the only user manual you get with it is the Help menu.”

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David Ellefson Rock Shop App – Review

Rock Shop is a universal app that works with any iPad, iPhone (4 or 4s), or iPod Touch (4th gen or later) running iOS 4.3 or later. To use the app, you need to have a way to connect your guitar to your iOS device. Pocketlabworks, Inc. would like you to purchase their $99.99 iRiffPort adapter, which allows you to connect your guitar’s cable to a splitter that connects to the 30-pin port on your iOS device. I use IKMultimedia’s iRig adapter when connecting my guitar to my iPad. At $39.99, it’s an option for those for whom price is a bigger consideration.

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Star Walk for iPad New Features Are Worth A Look

I took a look at the original version of Star Walk some time ago, and at the time I liked the app a lot. Since then, Vito Technology hasn’t stopped improving the the app, with the latest version of Star Walk being the best iteration yet. Some of the new features that take advantage of the capabilities of the iPad 2 and the New iPad continue to make Star Walk a “must-have” app for any amateur astronomer or science teacher.

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TidBITS Take Control of Mail eBook – Review

Reading email is something everyone does with their iPad. The Mail app is arguably one of the most used apps on any iOS device. Most of the time, reading mail is a painless exercise. There are times when it can be downright aggravating too. TidBITS Publishing’s Take Control Series of eBooks has the answer to just about any question you may have about iOS Mail in Take Control of Mail on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, by Joe Kissell.

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Thule 15″ Crossover Messenger Bag – Review

As a high school science teacher for the past 18 years, I’ve had the opportunity to try out a number of bags to carry the myriad of papers, laptops, iPads, and books back and forth to school each day. I put these bags through their paces and I’ve seen some pretty decent bags and some pretty awful ones too. When Thule sent me their 15″ Crossover Messenger Bag, I could tell right away that it was built with quality and durability in mind. I’ve been using the bag for most of the past school year and it still looks like a brand-new bag.

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On the State of Chinese Manufacturing Conditions

A big, dirty cloud of dust has been kicked up concerning Apple, manufacturing in China, and Chinese labor practices. Mike Daisey’s NPR misinformation in January helped fuel the fire. I feel compelled to chime in on this subject because as a product development specialist and designer, my career has been spent working directly inside factories in Europe and Asia. During the past couple of decades I’ve worked almost exclusively with manufacturers all over China.

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ZooGue BinderPad Pouch – Review

The BinderPad is a soft, yet durable polyester case custom-fitted for the iPad 2. What sets it apart from other tablet cases is that there are grommets that fit any standard three-ring binder along the case’s left-hand edge. Measuring just under the standard notebook paper size of eight and a half by eleven inches, the BinderPad fits nicely inside of just about any three-ring notebook.

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Two iPad Accessories You Need to See – Review

The SmartMate case is a protective, hard-plastic case that simply snaps onto your iPad 2. The most noteworthy exception to the norm here is that the case is designed to work in conjunction with Apple’s Smart Cover. Most hard cases don’t allow you to do so, and having that option is great. I love using Apple’s Smart Cover and I’m always annoyed when a case won’t work with it.

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Do Apple’s Education Announcements Pave the Way for the ePad?

Apple’s January 19th education event brings the iPad to the forefront as an educational tool to replace textbooks and classroom computers.  Apple is once again focusing on the K-12 education market, a market it dominated in the early 1980’s with the Apple II.  But is the iPad really the device Apple is focusing on here?  Or is there another device in Apple’s future that this event is paving the way for?  I think Apple needs a new device, I call the ePad.

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