Get Free Study Guide Ebooks from Kaplan Through August 30th

If you are stuying for the ACT, SAT, GRE, GMAT, MCAT, or any other of the rather large number of standardized tests, Kaplan is handing out free ebooks through August 30th to anyone with an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Just point your mobile browser to http://kaplanpublishing.com/iTunes on your iOS device and pick whatever you need.

Brabus’s iBusiness is a Mercedes-Benz S600 tricked out Apple style

And it’s all built into a car that goes from 0 to 62 in 4.0 seconds, with a top speed of 211 miles per hour. Brabus has tricked out those interiors, too — there’s leather everywhere, power-operated curtains, wood trim, color-changing interior lighting, LED running lights outside, and anodized aluminum pedals under the sport steering wheel. Yowza.

Brabus doesn’t give a price for this made-to-order monster, but the car itself (without any options) starts around $150k, so the entire package runs into the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” range. What a set of wheels, though.

More Claims of Smaller, Square iPod Nano This Week, Along With Possible 3G iPod Touch and iLife

Apple is poised to introduce a radically redesigned iPod nano this week that will retain its trademark I/O connector despite its drastically reduced form factor. Meanwhile, rumors pertaining to 3G-enabled iPod touches and a new version of iLife are also on the table.

Mockup comparing possible next-generation iPod nano form factor to 2nd-generation model

New claims of a significant redesign of the iPod nano scheduled for release at this week’s media event, lending additional weight to the square cases and earlier rumors associated with the device.

People familiar with the matter indicated that the size and shape of the device, revealed this week through photos of third-party cases, will be more akin to the iPod shuffle than the current-generation iPod nano. Even with this small size, however, it is expected to have a traditional iPod dock connector, allowing compatibility with the existing iPod accessory ecosystem.

The new iPod nano is said to utilize a tiny 3cm-by-3cm display that was revealed in its bare form as unknown Apple-branded component earlier this summer. For comparison, the second-generation iPod nano had a screen that was about 3cm by 2.5cm.

In addition to the iPod nano, the report notes that Apple has been toying with plans to release a version of the iPod touch offering 3G cellular data access. The company is said to have begun seriously considering the idea after seeing the success of the 3G-capable version of the iPad released earlier this year, and prototypes of 3G-capable iPod touches are claimed to be in existence.

Finally, rumors of an update to Apple’s iLife suite persist, with Friday’s report suggesting that a portion of next week’s media event might be devoted to a new version of Apple’s multimedia suite. With Apple having moved to an approximately 18-month release cycle over the last few versions of iLife and the current version having been released in early 2009, an update in the near future would be a reasonable guess. One claim from late last month predicted an August 17th release for “iLife ’11″, which is rumored to see the discontinuation of iDVD, a significant revamp of iWeb, and a new “mystery” application. The claimed release did not, however, occur on the predicted date.

Top 10 Back to School Apps

From the college-bound to those who are still lucky enough to enjoy recess, here is a list of the best back to school apps.

1. Open Culture

Check out Open Culture, which gives you free access to a huge selection of educational and intellectual audio and video collections.

2. Mental Case

For $4.99, Mental Case lets you create oh-so-handy flashcards on your iPhone. If you’re still leaning toward making them out of paper, then the added bonus of being able to record audio and insert images to the cards may sway your thoughts.

In addition to making your own custom flashcards, you also have access to FlashcardExchange where you can choose from over 21 million cards on a huge range of topics.

3. Rate My Professor

Rate My Professors is a useful app in deciding what courses you want to try to get into and which ones you should probably ditch before the add/drop period is over.

You can tweet or post the messages to Facebook, but use caution if you plan to publicize a bad review.

4. myHomework and iStudiez Pro

Color coding helps you keep track of assignments in different classes, and when they’re due. If you are a great organizer, you can use the app to intricately plan how much of each assignment you want to accomplish and by what date to really keep you on track. The app has been updated since we last reviewed it, and you can now view your homework in a day or calendar view, as well as send homework reminders to friends.

iStudiez Pro is a paid app ($2.99) that will help you keep track of your student life. Here you can track your class schedule, so you aren’t missing lectures and ending up at the wrong end of campus, and you can also color-code each of your classes with their corresponding assignments, and be notified of their due dates on the apps calendar.

5. Free Translator

Spanish class may be frustrating, but  free translator is a great way to help you learn another language, as you can discover words that are more relevant to your life.

6. Chegg

Chegg is a freeapp that does just that. It’s a textbook rental company with millions of titles to choose from, which is a real bonus considering you don’t have to brave the school book store and stand in line for hours.

You can search for your book by title, author or ISBN, or simply scan its barcode. The app is hellbent on saving you money, as you can compare Chegg’s rental price to the retail and in-store prices, so you know you are getting the best deal.

7. Blackboard Mobile Learn for iPhone

Blackboard is a platform that many schools use as way to communicate with students, as well as posting their grades and assignments to private student accounts. Many teachers and professors will direct their students to head to Blackboard to view next week’s lecture notes or find the link to a required reading. Having access to the platform on your phone can make keeping up with your assignments so much easier.

8. Quick Graph

For many of us, math is just not our thing. Those who get it and love it will probably adore Quick Graph, a graphic calculator with 2D and 3D capabilities. It’s also capable of displaying explicit and implicit equations as well as inequalities in both 2D and 3D, in all standard coordinate systems: Cartesian, polar, spherical and cylindrical. You can also share your results via e-mail or you can save them to your photo library.

9. Formulus Free – Formulas for Calculus

Formulus Free is an app that can help when your memory fails you. There is no more searching through pages of notes to find the right formula for your equation. The free app has all your algebra, geometry and differential equation needs in one easy-to-find place.

10. Free Books

So Free Books isn’t actually free, but you get a lot for its $1.99 price tag. Once you’ve paid for the app, you have easy access to 23,469 classics at the swipe of a finger.

Just In: HBO for Ipad

HBO Co-president Eric Kessler says his company’s HBO Gostreaming TV and movie service will be available on the iPad and mobile devices for the network’s paying customers within six months.

In addition myriad of award winning shows like True Blood, HBO has the online rights to  films from Universal, Fox and Warner Bros, including titles such as Jurassic Park, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Night at the Museum: Battle in the Smithsonian and The Informant!.

Even though it is good to see that HBO’s films and series are going mobile, it’s bad  that if you want streaming movie content online HBO will be charge you for an additional service. As the Bloomberg article states, a deal between HBO and Netflix is extremely unlikely right now.

There’s already a Netflix iPad app, and Netflix just paid almost a billion dollars to HBO competitor EPIX for the rights to films from Paramount, Lions Gate Entertainment and MGM. Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming service is available on a plethora of devices, including not just the iPad but several set-top boxes, TVs, Blu-ray players and video game consoles. HBO is going to try to bridge the gap.

source mashable

iApps of the Day: BRIDES Wedding Genius and The Dealmap

BRIDES Wedding Genius By Nearbynow, Inc.

Brides Wedding Genius is the newest member of this lineup, and in many ways it is the most promising, given its pedigree. Brides magazine has covered the wedding industry since 1934, and it is published by Conde Nast, which has a good track record in mobile apps .

The Wedding Genius does fairly well in balancing comprehensiveness and simplicity. It is nicely laid out and easy on the eye, with magazine-quality photos throughout.

Download the FREE BRIDES Wedding Genius app NOW to browse hundreds of wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses, jewelry galleries, and exciting honeymoon destinations, brought to you by BRIDES magazine.

The Dealmap: The Dealmap (which is free, naturally) aggregates sales, deals, discounts, and coupons in your city or town. You can see them scattered across a map or in a list view, which is sortable by type of discount or business.

You can also add deals you come across yourself to the database, earning status points to eventually become a Deals Hero. And between your daily session with the Professor and a league of deal heroes in your pocket, those are some pretty authoritative savings. Free

iPod Overheats, Causes Train Delay in Tokyo

A Tokyo commuter train was delayed last Friday because  of a burning smell that was caused by an Apple iPod owned by one of the passengers.

The train was delayed in western Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward for eight minutes  at around 8:20 a.m. local time. “When a member of staff went to investigate inside the train, a passenger came over showing him that the iPod she was listening to had burst apart,” the spokesman of the rail line operator Tokyu Corp told Reuters. No injuries were reported.

The timing is bad for Apple, with Apple Japan recently admitting overheating problems in first generation iPod nanos and offering replacements to customers. The exact model of the iPod that caused the accident on the train, however, remains unknown.

source: mashable

Apple’s iAd Service Still Leaves Us Wondering

Opinions are rolling in on Apple’s iAd mobile advertising platform, and so far they seem to be mixed.

Since launching its iAd mobile advertising service on July 1, of the 17 launch partners Apple named for iAd, only Unilever PLC and Nissan Co. had iAd campaigns for much of July. Of the remaining 17, Citigroup Inc., Walt Disney Co. and J.C. Penney Co.—which tied its campaign to the back-to-school-season—have since launched iAd campaigns and other companies are planning iAd efforts.

Part of the reason some marketers are experiencing delays in getting their iAds to market is that Apple has kept tight control on the creative aspects of ad-making, something advertisers aren’t used to, according to several ad executives involved with creating iAds.

Despite the complaints about Apple slowing up the creative process,  the iAd campaigns that have been launched are reportedly doing quite well.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Nissan and Unilever are both impressed with the iAd results so far. The paper reports that “Nissan, which created a multilayer interactive ad for its electric LEAF car, said customers spent an average of 90 seconds with the ad–10 times longer than interaction times for comparable online ads. Moreover, people chose to “tap” on the Leaf iAd five times more frequently than they clicked on regular online display ads for the Leaf.”

On the other side of the spectrum, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that many advertisers are frustrated with the culture of creating iAds with Apple–which has put its typical control-freak footprint on the creative process. The WSJ article states “That has made the creation of the mobile ads laborious, taking about eight to 10 weeks from brainstorm to completion–longer than normal for most mobile ads, executives said. The building of the actual ad, handled by Apple, in some cases is taking two weeks longer than expected, one person added.”

For more on iAd go to  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/08/apple-ad-partners-happy-with-early-iad-results.html

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