Techno Babble

If anyone else has a similar problem, you may find the following snippet useful.

My iPad 2 was not showing (on my Mac) as a device associated with my iTunes account . On closer investigation, I appeared to have  trouble enabling the automatic download feature on the iPad using Settings…Store. Each button for Music, Books and Apps would switch off by themselves after a few seconds.

Simple fix is to Sign Out of your account on the iPad then sign back in. Buttons would then remain switched ON and the iPad correctly appeared as a device in the iTunes account on my Mac.

Yet more good (free) stuff from Autodesk, who have released a 3D sculpting and painting app for the iPad called 123D Sculpt.

Users can select from a number of pre-defined shapes as a starting point and use a variety of tools are available that enable the user to “tweak” the model into the shape that they require.

Currently available as a free download (for a limited time) from the App Store

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/123d-sculpt/id446119510?mt=8

More details about the App can be found at

http://123dsculpt.com/

and there is a video channel on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/123dsculpt

For others who may experience a similar issue …

I’d just got my iPad 2 and connected it up to my Mac machine running the latest Mac OS X v 10.6.7 and started iTunes as instructed.

Things seemed to be going fine through registration and setup when I received the abrupt warning

iTunes was unable to load dataclass information from Sync Services. Reconnect or try again later.

iTunes did, however, recognise that an upgrade to iOS 4.3.3 was required and proceeded with the download.

At the start of the iOS upgrade, however, I got the equally strange message

iTunes could not backup KML System’s iPad because the backup session failed.

Tried all the usual things, checked iTunes version was up-to-date, rebooted machine, etc. etc.
Was there a problem because I had Dropbox running ? (this didn’t seem to be a problem)

How about trying the “Restore to original settings” ? (This did proceed to install iOS 4.3.3 on the iPad but the same messages persisted and sync would still not work).

Was there something wrong with the iPad ? (brand new too! – but no, the same problem was apparent with my 2nd Generation iPod Touch which produced the same messages when plugged in).

To cut a long story short, it appears that installing Xcode 4 will corrupt an existing installation of iTunes in some way. The solution is simply to reinstall iTunes!!

Lo and behold, the problem went away after a re-install of iTunes and all is back in working order with syncing and backups working as per normal.

ps … I came across an interesting topic on the Apple Support Communities which discusses the same issue and contains some additional steps which may be required if a simple re-install of iTunes fails to resolve the issue.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/13213319?messageID=13213319

The 2nd Generation Apple tablet computer is on sale from today in the US.

It should be available in a number of other countries including the UK on March 25th.

Slimmer than the original  at 9.5in x 7.31in x 0.34in (241.2mm x 185.7mm x 8.8mm)  and lighter too at around 1.33 pounds (600g) that’s 33% thinner and 15% lighter.

Powered by a custom designed 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 processor, with a 9.7 inch (diagonal) LED backlit multi-touch display providing a graphics resolution of 1024×768 pixels. The battery will allow up to 10 hours of use from a full charge.

New features include 2 cameras – a front facing camera providing VGA quality at up to 30 frames a second with audio, to support Apples’ FaceTime video calling facility and a back facing camera that allows recording HD images/video. The still back-facing camera provides 5x digital zoom. A 3-axis gyro, Accelerometer Ambient Light Sensor and Digital Compass are incorporated.

Available with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage in either Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi + 3G versions. Prices start from $499.

Notable accessories available (at extra cost) include:

The iPad 2 Smart Cover provides additional protection and can fold in just the right places to create a stand for holding the iPad.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/smart-cover/

Use the 30-pin to HDMI wow AV adapter to plug the iPad 2 into your HDTV, projector and display your iPad 2 screen so that everyone else can watch too

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/mirroring.html

The iOS 4.3 Software Update from Apple, has been released a couple of days before the iPad 2 hits the streets.

Main enhancements to iOS4.3 include:

• Faster web browsing with Safari incorporating the new Nitro JavaScript engine. This will run JavaScript up to 2x quicker than the speed of Safari in iOS4.2.
• iTunes Home Sharing allows iOS 4.3 users to play media on an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch from their iTunes library on a Mac or PC over a local wi-fi network.
• There are also improvements to AirPlay that allow you to stream additional content including video from 3rd party apps, to AppleTV (which requires a 2nd generation Apple TV running the latest software).
• There is a new Personal Hotspot feature. This allows you to share an iPhone 4 cellular data connection with up to 5 additional devices in a combination of a maximum of 3 over Wi-Fi, 3 over BlueTooth and 1 USB device.
  Note: Personal Hotspot requires a supporting hotspot tethering plan from your carrier
• The iPad side switch can be customised to allow you to either use it to lock the screen in landscape or portrait mode or to use it as a mute button.
• Also on iPad, you can use 4 and 5 finger gestures that allow you to pinch to reach the Home Screen. Swipe Up to show the multi-tasking bar and Swipe Left or Swipe Right to switch between running applications.

As always, to install the updates it’s simply a case of connecting to your Mac or PC and using the software update feature for your device in iTunes.

Note: The iPhone 3G or 1st and 2nd generation iPod Touch are no longer supported in this version of iOS.

Full details about iOS 4.3 are available from:

http://www.apple.com/ios/

Do you want to turn your iPad into a laptop ?

I’m not sure why you would want to but you can – with the iBluek Bluetooth Keyboard from Dexim.

The keyboard is made of premium leather for durability and superior protection.The sleek ABS keys turn the iPad and keyboard into one seamless unit.

http://www.dexim.net/us/products/Home-Office/DXA010.html

Introduced at the recent CES 2011

Beautiful Modeler is a software program that enables Gestural Sculpting using a multi-touch controller such as the iPad.

Fingers are used to move touch points in the model. The view of the model can be changed and controlled by moving the iPad.

Details at

http://www.interactivefabrication.com/projects/beautiful-modeler/

A simple tip that allows you to create your own library of PDF files and read them on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad using iBooks.

From iTunes, select File…Add to Library, navigate to the PDF file(s) and pick Choose.

This will load them into the Books section of your iTunes library and syncing with your device will copy them into your iBooks library under a new section called PDFs.

Job done.

And another thing, if you have a Mac you can add a PDF directly to the Books section of iTunes, using the following approach:

Make an alias of the iTunes program (ctrl click on the iTunes program in the Applications folder)

Drag the alias to your [home-folder]/Library/PDF Services folder and rename it, if required.

Now you will have an iTunes option when, for example, you pick the PDF button in a Print dialog.

This is a simple readme text file which I’m going to add to my Books collection, and here it is in iTunes. (note: it works with text files too!)

Job done