The Air Force is hoping to lighten its paper usage with 18,000 iPads over the next ten years. The cost savings could bring in as much as $50 million in revenue, some of its as reduced fuel costs. Currently, paper manuals can weigh as much as 30-40 pounds of paper for each crew member. This number jumps to 490 pounds of paper for a C-5 with 10 crew members.

In an interview on The Street, Major Brian Moritz explains the fuel savings:

By removing all that paper, AMC will capture about $750,000 in fuel savings [annually] just based off the decreased weight Read more

Catching a foul ball can be the apex of a fun and exciting softball game… unless you are using your face. That’s nearly what happened to a lucky spectator who was using his iPad to record the game. Being such a good sport, he continued undeterred after a foul ball slammed into his tablet.

We have already shared a story about an iPad surviving hammer blows after lodging itself into the bumper of a car, but this video actually captures the foul ball incident. Tablets are resilient, but don’t try this at home.

Click here to view the video. Read more

Atlanta driver Alexa Crisa found a stranger’s iPad wedged so deep into her car’s bumper she had to use a hammer to remove the Apple device. The 23 year old driver said she was cruising at 40 mph when she saw something left the top of another vehicle, but decided it was safe to continue when she did not run over anything.

Surprisingly, the iPad was able to withstand the collision and subsequent hammering by Crisa’s dad. They were able to turn on the iPad to trace the owner who was able to get a new tablet through Apple’s extended warranty plan. He also offered to pay for a new bumper for the unlucky driver.

Via WSBTV

Los Angeles’s Mount Sinai Hospital is using iPads to provide mothers with Face Time for mothers of newborns in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Mothers separated from their newborns are unable to bond immediately after delivery, but the hospital’s new digital communication system, called Baby Talk, allows mothers to see their child and have bonding time when they are unable to be physically together due to medical complications.

Charles F. Simmons Jr., MD, chair of the Cedars-Sinai Department of Pediatrics, states that:

BabyTime will help bridge communication with the family and the baby’s medical team and is an excellent use of technology to help new mothers bond with their babies, even when they cannot be physically at their babies’ bedside. When doctors and nurses are treating a newborn in the NICU, mom can be right there asking questions and getting updates, even if she’s on a different floor.

Each child placed in the NICU receives a bedside iPad along with mom who can log in twice each day to see her newborn.

Apple is no longer alone in the tablet business. Faced with competition, the company is tapping into iPad-love for its new marketing effort which aims to attract new customers.

iPad owners are passionate about their devices and Apple wants to get that message across to potential owners. To do so, the company has introduced a new page on its website titled, “Why you’ll love an iPad.”

Apple boasts on the page: “When iPad was introduced, there was nothing quite like it. And there still isn’t. Today millions of people are using iPad and iPad mini to do just about anything you can imagine. Here are a few reasons why they’re loving every minute of it.”

The page highlights all of the features of the device and points to a study by J.D. Power and Associates, in which Apple ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Tablets.” (Via Apple Insider).

For the accessory-curious such as myself, ogling at weird and bizarre objects is just as entertaining as searching for useful apps. Today’s top five list is an examination into the strange world of smartphone accessories that reveal just how many different types of users exists.

1. iPhone Cup Holder: If you are like me, putting down a coffee cup to send a text or make a call is no big deal, but perhaps others wish to text and sip simultaneously?

Read more

A computer hacker has been sentenced to three years of jail for hacking into AT&T’s database and exposing the email addresses of more than 100,000 iPad owners including New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and film producer Harvey Weinstein.

The Chicago Tribune has the story: “Andrew Auernheimer, 27, had been convicted in November by a Newark, N.J., jury of one count of conspiracy to access AT&T Inc. servers without permission and one count of identity theft.”

Auernheimer’s group, which went under the name Goatse Security, shared the leaked data with the media blog Gawker, which broke the story. Gawker explained how the hackers got in:

Goatse Security obtained its data through a script on AT&T’s website, accessible to anyone on the internet. When provided with an ICC-ID as part of an HTTP request, the script would return the associated email address, in what was apparently intended to be an AJAX-style response within a Web application.

Some Penguins at the Aquarium of the Pacific were given a digital treat. The animals’ keepers had an old iPad to give them – preloaded with Game for Cat’s Chase the Mouse. One penguin in particular took a special affinity to the game’s fun, noisy mice.

Sure enough when Jeremy and Newsom noticed the iPad in the exhibit they both waddled on over. Jeremy was the first to try it out but Newsom was the one that really got into it. Stalking the virtual mouse intently he tried to pick it up repeatedly with his beak. Newsom especially seemed to like the squeak that the mouse made when he put his beak on the virtual critter. The mouse was self reinforcing for this penguin. Newsom set the penguin high score of 1600 for the game.

This video captures the penguin arcade in all of its cute glory. Read more

Tired of your favorite stories always ending the same way? That’s what the makers of Versu believe. Their hyper-interactive app is a tech twist on the typical choose-your-own adventure story complete with a monetizing scheme for wannabe storytellers.

To begin, select an episode from Versu’s library or buy one from their store (there’s only three for now). The app allows you to select a character to play and the scripted narrative comes with objectives that must be completed before you move on. Each story is like a game and your character gives you an idiosyncratic perspective on stories that changes each time you play them. Users can unlock various achievements that spices up each narrative.

Versu makers, Linden Labs (creators of Second Life) wants users to benefit from their creations so eventually you’ll be able to create stories you can sell to other users on Versu’s platform. Read more

Drawquest is more than your typical drawing application – it gives you a daily drawing quest and offers a social platform to share your creations. Drawquest users can also watch stroke-by-stroke videos of drawings to see how images are made.

The makers of Drawquest thinks the app can help cultivate creativity by giving users daily prompts. An unfinished drawing and a selection of colors and tools accompany each prompt. Successful completions of quests are rewarded with coins that are used to purchase more colors. In-app purchases are offered for impatient artists who want more colors immediately.

The app and drawing tools result in cartoonish looking images, but the makers of Drawquest does not believe that high art is necessary to foster creativity: Read more