Outline: The Education Apple - episode 24

“The show that discusses Apple technology in the formal Classroom as well as in the classroom of our daily lives”

1. The Cast

• Barrett Mosbacker, Superintendent of Briarwood Christian School, publisher Christian School Journal

• Bill Brazeal, Technical Architect, Technology Specialist and Principal - ezNet Solutions

2. Technology Review

• Latest on iPhone 5s and 5c rollout

  • Apple Releases iOS 7.0.3 with Updated Reduce Motion Setting, Spotlight Improvements, iCloud Keychain, and More

    • iOS 7.0.3 introduces support for iCloud Keychain, which allows you to keep Safari passwords and credit card information in sync across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac running the just-released OS X Mavericks

    • Once enabled, iCloud Keychain will be available in Settings > iCloud, encrypting information as you use Safari

    • iOS 7.0.3 brings back the ability to search Google and Wikipedia from Spotlight (Search Web, Search Wikipedia)

    • iOS 7.0.3 the Reduce Motion setting (available in General > Accessibility) now truly reduces animations: switching to apps and back to Home screen, unlocking the device, and moving between folders is now a cross-fade that is much faster than Apple’s animations with Reduce Motion turned off

  • Just released earnings Report identified that Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones for the 4th (September) quarter compared to 26.9 million in the year ago quarter

• Review: OS X 10.9 Mavericks  (Free OS upgrade as long as you are running Snow Leopard 10.6 or later)

  • System Requirements

    • iMac (Mid-2007 or later)

    • MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)

    • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)

    • MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)

    • Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)

    • Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)

    • Xserve (Early 2009)

  • New Features (No marquee feature but nice upgrades and under the cover tech improvements)

    • iOS look - Mavericks discards a lot of the old design elements that were used to mimic real-world items, such as the fake leather texture on apps like the calendar and address book

• iBooks (taken 3 years to make it to OSX)

  • Apple is hoping that the move to the Mac will result in iBooks becoming more popular among students

  • You can set up iBooks for Mac to automatically download purchases from other devices, and parental controls are available

  • iBooks textbooks include trackpad support for pinching to access the table of contents and interactive content

  • One nice advantage over the mobile version is that you can pop out multiple book windows to switch between titles

• Maps

  • Easier to search for directions on mac then send to your iPhone via new share button

• Safari

  • Significantly faster than Firefox (20%) and Chrome (44%)

  • Better memory and CPU usage than FF and C

  • Updated with new sidebar that lets you see your list of bookmarks and reading list and shared links (see posts from Twitter and LinkedIn for your accounts)

• Finder

  • Ability to have multiple tabbed finder windows

  • Tags - When saving a file, there is now a box beneath the file name where you can input tags like “Important” or “To do.”

  • the prompt for saving a file now remembers your most recent folder instead of just defaulting to iCloud

• Notifications

  • New quick actions - Now you can respond to messages straight from the banner pop-up

  • You can also sign up for notifications from websites to find out about breaking news, sports scores and auctions

  • Notifications will stack up on your login screen while your Mac is asleep, so you can see them right when it wakes up

• iCloud Keychain

  • Apple has included the sorts of features you’d find in cross-device password applications like 1Password in OS X Mavericks and iOS 7

  • iCloud can now suggest randomized passwords when signing up for a service, remember credit card information and automatically fill-in your password on websites

  • Big Question: Has iCloud earned my trust yet???

  • Apple says it wraps your passwords in 256-bit AES encryption, so they should be relatively safe from hacking - good

  • But what about iCloud reliability

  • iCloud Keychain seems convenient but it might be good to let it prove itself for a while

• Multiple Displays

  • Apple has done away with the primary and secondary display concept

  • Each screen now has access to the dock and the menu bar

  • you can manage multiple desktop spaces and fullscreen apps for each display

  • The revamped Mission Control allows you to drag and drop screens and windows from one desktop to another

  • The new OS supports AirPlay Display, which allows to you to turn an Apple TV-connected television into an extended desktop

• Advanced Technologies

  • Power enhancements could add up to an extra hour of battery life

    • NOTE: you can click and hold battery icon and see what apps are consuming a lot of power.

  • Timer coalescing - OS X Mavericks now groups computing tasks together in order to allow the CPU to have longer idle times. Apple claims activity can be reduced as much as 72 percent.

  • App Nap - when an app is hidden by other windows it pauses power to it functions

  • iTunes HD content more efficient - Watching iTunes HD movies and TV shows should take up less power in Mavericks. The OS has been tweaked to make better use of the graphics processor, require less disk access, and play audio more efficiently. Apple claims the CPU uses 35 percent less energy while watching video.

  • Memory Compression - Inactive memory on OS X Mavericks is now compressed to free up more room. Apple claims a 1.4 times improvement in responsiveness under load and 1.5 times faster wake from standby.

• Features like Notification Syncing that rely on iOS-to-OS X integration and vice versa will require iOS 7 to be installed on the mobile devices to function, and obviously any iCloud specific features will require an Apple ID and internet connection to be able to use.

• Additionally, features like OpenGL 4, accelerated scrolling, AirPlay Mirroring, AirDrop, PowerNap, and perhaps some of the newer features and system-level performance enhancements may have stricter system requirements, and generally tend to require newer Mac models for full support. Obviously any battery specific improvements to OS X 10.9 will require a portable Mac.

• New iWork for OSX

  • First major update to its office suite in nearly four years

  • Focus is on bringing feature parity between the desktop, mobile, and Web-based versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote

  • As a result a large number of features from the OS X edition of the suite, with both Pages and Numbers boasting fewer capabilities and a general lack of support for automation and scripting

  • Advanced search-and-replace & customization of Pages’s toolbar are just a couple of features gone

  • loss of scripting functionality in the new iWork apps

  • Microsoft Office actually offers better support for AppleScript than Apple’s own products

  • Apple is willing to make a short-term sacrifice in functionality so that they can create a foundation that is equal across the Mac, iOS, and web versions

  • Similar to how Apple rolled out Final Cut Pro, Apple starts extremely tight and zoom out as it adds features back into the mix

  • When you upgrade, it leaves your existing copies of the iWork 09 apps in place
    

• Google makes Quickoffice for iOS free and universal

  • Not to be outdone, Google announced on Sept 19 that it is making its previously paid-for Quickoffice iOS app free for everyone

  • With Quickoffice, you can edit Microsoft® Office documents across your devices

  • Quickoffice also integrates seamlessly with Google Drive storage so you can safely access your files from anywhere

  • Easy to convert old files to Goggle Docs, Sheets and Slides
    

3. Briarwood School iPad Program

• Updating to iOS

• Updating to Mavericks once SMART board software is compatible

• Edmodo being used with HS faculty and administration for training and SM type communication.

• PLTW and STEM will ultimately integrate with our LU program

4. Apps and Followings

• Barrett -

  • App pick (Converter+)

     

5. Wrap up and closing remarks...

Don’t forget to follow us on the Internet

Bill: Twitter - @billbrazeal         Web - http://billbrazeal.com

Barrett: Twitter - @BMosbacker

Blog:  Christian School Journal http://christianschooljournal.com/

Thanks for listening in, be sure to tell your friends, watch for our next episode coming in two weeks.  So long for now.