iPad for American Airlines pilots

American Airlines, the third large company in the world (612 aircraft), decided to follow Alaska Airlines and replace paper manuals drivers by iPad. The change would allow the company to save $ 1.2 million per year simply by gasoline, manual paper weighing at least 15 kg. Initially, the device will be tested on two flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo and Los Angeles and Shanghai. The iPad was declared by the U.S. administration as an electronic device used during takeoff and landing, the sine qua non for the replacement of paper manuals.

If the drivers are entitled to an iPad, American Airlines customers will have their side of the Galaxy Tab, at least those who travel first class or business. The company has signed a partnership with Samsung to provide its customers 6000 tablets Android. The latest Galaxy Tab 10 inches were chosen to accompany some flights to the United States and around the world. Boeing equipped with multiple shelves also offer Wi-Fi, what casual browsing on the shelf during the flight. The tablets will be specific, we assume that the system will be crippled and we know that Samsung will load videos in HD.

Weekend Calendar HD removed

We learned a few days ago that Week Calendar HD disappeared from the App Store. This calendar iPad took over the native interface of the application by adding many features. Its removal is not motivated at first; we thought it was related to the duplication of functions offered by Apple from iOS 5.

The designers of the application have been received explanations on the sudden withdrawal. As they explain on their website, Apple has found the application interface too close to that of the native calendar for its pop-up giving more information about an event.


The only problem is that pop-up is created automatically by EventKitUI, a framework proposed by Apple developers ... developers of the application defend themselves: they used it as the documentation requested.

Undeniably, this withdrawal from the App Store is a mistake for Apple to be, one can only hope, quickly corrected. We assume that the person requesting the withdrawal of the application was unaware of the existence of EventKitUI and that an excess of zeal that it did so. Until more information is hard to imagine that this withdrawal is a sign of a change in policy from Apple.

Is iCloud going to use Windows Azure!?

In recent weeks, Mary-Jo Foley, a journalist specializing in Windows for ZDNet, has received several indications that Apple would use Windows Azure, the platform-as-service Microsoft. She was dismissed out of hand these rumors, but the assumption seems to be confirmed now iCloud was presented.

Sending an image IMessage causes authentication to servers Windows Azure. The study of communications network connected to IOS devices icloud indeed shows contacts with Windows Azure servers and Amazon AWS in addition to Apple's servers, as shown, for example Apple Infinite. GigaOM has sought advice from three experts from the cloud: if two do not think that such communications be sufficient evidence, the third draws an explanation of interest.

Apple already has data centers, used especially for MobileMe and updates of software. They are however not sufficient to properly distribute the content around the world: Apple relies on a distribution network (CDN), provided in particular by Akamai and Limelight. The contents are duplicated on thousands of servers around the globe to accelerate downloads. So according to this third expert, Apple would use a similar strategy to icloud: the data center of Maiden would host the master files, but copies are placed on servers Windows Azure (and Amazon AWS) as a cache.

In light of new observations of network traffic on an iPhone with iOS 5, Infinite Apple has another theory: Apple's servers would not be used to store files, but to manage the links between different files, scattered servers, Windows Azure and Amazon AWS, as close to their users.

In any case in detail, the use of external services for icloud is not surprising. While the data center of Maiden is the ninth largest in the world, but Microsoft up three data centers in the top 10: the Redmond Company has one of the largest accommodation capacity in the world, with a system, Windows Azure that has nothing to prove. Apple is pragmatic on the matter: she knows the world of data center is not his strength, and does in fact not a single Mac in the Maiden. Windows Azure is also a product that Steve Jobs knows well: his other company, Pixar, had worked in the cloud version of its rendering engine, system demonstration in the Microsoft cloud.

Firefox could lose the support of Ubuntu

The Linux world is much more complex than Windows or Mac OS, with a large number of distributions can be very different. If anyone who knew how to stand out, however, it is Ubuntu. The distribution is used by millions of people around the world and even if that system is far from the success of Apple's and Microsoft, its weight in the Linux world is enormous.

So when Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is in favor of abandoning Firefox as the default browser of its system in favor of Chrome, the information does unnoticed. The man is known for its radical choices and often disputed, such as a completely new interface (Unity) in Ubuntu 11.04. We also knew Mark Shuttleworth fan of Google products and think clearly to impose his views by putting forward the browser from search giant.

Nothing is done yet and the next version of Ubuntu numbered 11.10 and expected to fall still keep Firefox as default browser. Even following the 4.12 that should land in spring 2012, could still keep Firefox as the default choice, but it might be the last version.

For inexperienced users, this change would be insignificant because they can always install Firefox and make it the default browser. But for all new users attracted by the simplicity Ubuntu, it certainly means a change in browser. Firefox is not in great shape these days, here's some news that should not help the Mozilla browser, if it ever materializes.

Ripit available in discount rate!!!

If you have a large collection of DVDs and a large hard disk, Ripit is the ideal tool to store all those DVDs to the hard drive. This utility creates archives in ". DVD media" which are fully recognized by the DVD player for Mac OS X. Ripit interface is very simple and has few options: the whole DVD is imported; you can simply change its name. The application is also able to compress a DVD into a compatible version of IOS for example. Mac Update today offers the only 50% discount, $ 9.99 instead of $ 24.95.

iStat Menus prepares for the arrival of new Mac OS X Lion. The latest version of this utility that displays in the menu bar of Mac OS X more information about the Mac improves its compatibility with Mac OS X 10.7, but the publisher did not specify what's new.

Default Folder X overrides the windows open and save files in Mac OS X to add their many functions. This utility changes to the system; it was not compatible with Mac OS X Lion. This new version is beginning to be compatible with the new cat from Apple, even if there are many bugs and if the functions are all present. This version also adds some multi touch gestures, and fixes many bugs.