Exploring the Interwebs on Columbus Day from heathaplexVISION on Vimeo.

Are you enjoying Columbus Day? In the words of Bruce Dickinson, “Explore the Space!” Check out what’s happening in the world of tech and gadgets. Thanks for following and thanks for all your support!

I ran across a great article from All Things Digital on Disney’s new Appmates for the iPad. Here’s the skinny–they designed an App based on this hit Movie “Cars” that is completely interactive with actual Cars characters versus your own favorite phalange. To better give you a sense of how this works, I embedded a video below shot by DisneyLiving. Article I read with another video demo is linked at VentureBeat (incorporated into TechCrunch article).

Look how far we’ve come with touchscreen technology! C’mon, you’ve got to be a little impressed? My son is going to go bonkers over this game which is available this coming weekend. I’ll be sure to get my hands on it and let you know what I think. But, I’m more interested in seeing where this all goes. Can you imagine the world of Role Playing Games (RPGs) incorporating this into their gameplay? What about the ability to control your character on your iPad and seeing an entire map on an HDTV by connecting through the AppleTV 2? The possibilities are endless! Thank goodness for creativity and ingenuity!

If you get your hands on Disney’s Cars Appmate, post your thoughts below. If you have a video you would like to share, you can post them on our Facebook site at Facebook.com/heathaplexvision.  Enjoy!

Upgrades to operating systems always seem to make me nervous. Maybe it’s years of flashbacks to my days with Windows, but I admit I was a little shell shocked about downloading Apple’s latest OS. Perhaps it was the way Apple delivered this beast of an upgrade that put me and many others at ease.

First, it’s $29.00! What….yes….$29.00 and I don’t mean $29.00 for each Mac you own. This price tag will cover the install over all my Macs. Second, they delivered it through the App Store. No more discs, no more waiting for the mail and tracking my delivery via FedEx like a hungry predator. I woke up, opened up the App Store and there it was…practically begging me to click install. Trust me, I heard the voices and they sounded like James Earl Jones.  And finally, no prep required. Just download and install. No need to backup anything (but that’s a risk I assumed), no transferring of files and certainly no need for additional drivers and such. The only drawback to my plan was the fact that it downloaded at only 1 Mbit per second (nearly 7 1/2 hours)….through no fault of the App Store. Just a fact of where I was at the time. Despite the day-long download process, I am thoroughly impressed and overly satisfied with this upgrade. There is a bit of a steep learning curve to gaining access to all the goodies, but it’s a stark improvement. Here are a few of the things I currently enjoy about Apple’s OS X Lion.

Mail: Completely redone and looks amazing! Acts more like mail on the iPhone and iPad. I love that it tracks previous conversations and the search capabilities are powerful!

Address Book: Absolutely beautiful! Looks and feels like a real address book. Also gives you the capability to make Face Time calls from your contacts. Even lets you take photos or import photos for your contacts.

Calendar: Major updates! Full year view with a heat map, highlighting your busy times throughout the month. You can finally increase and decrease the size of the font by holding down Command  and (+ or -). Quick event entry works like Google calendar and the daily view is now more user friendly for the incorporation of lists.

Mission Control and Launch Pad: The Mission Control feature allows you to quickly view all the apps you have open…think expose and spaces merged together in a way that is far more effective. Activate it with a simple gesture. Launch Pad gives you the ability to launch your apps in a familiar fashion like you can on your iPad and iPhone. You can create folders and move them around in any order you wish.

Gestures: Tons of new gestures to learn and this will take me a little bit of repetition before I got them all down and committed to memory. You can see demos of them all by going to your System Preferences (Trackpad) setup. They all work great and I will be relying on them frequently.

I could go on and on…much like I already have, but visit Apple’s website to grasp the some 250+ changes/updates they’ve made to this operating system. This was a major update that I already love and no one comes close to the price tag of $29.00. This Lion has certainly earned the right to be called the King of the Jungle!

I did it folks! I upgraded from an iPad 1 to an iPad 2. I can’t believe it took me this long, but supplies have been somewhat limited. I actually got very lucky by popping into the Apple Store at Pentagon City one Saturday morning. The line was short, the inventory was large, and I walked out with a 64GB, WiFi/3G (AT&T) Pad of joy!

I won’t bore you will all the changes to the iPad 2…you can read about them on the web and many of you who follow this blog already know the basic differences. Personally, I love the new form factor. It is extremely comfortable to hold for long periods of time and the Smart Case rocks. Additionally, the speed and graphics capability is insane. I also feel the display is a bit better despite it being the same resolution as the original. However, the camera is not so good. You really need a lot of light to take great photos, but I didn’t really buy it for the rear camera. The front camera, however, is important to me these days since I keep up with my friends and family via FaceTime and Skype.

One of the best features is iPad 2′s ability to display Video Mirroring. What is Video Mirroring? Well, it is literally just that! Whatever is on your 9.7″ iPad 2 screen can now be displayed on your HD Flat! You can share presentations with Keynote, output Netflix movies or play your favorite video games bigger than Dallas. So, what is needed to harness this capability? You need an iPad 2 and a Digital A/V Adapter.

Apple sells a Digital A/V Adapter ($29.99) that plugs into the 30-pin connection at the bottom of the iPad 2. The other end features an HDMI plug and another 30-pin connector, giving you the ability to output audio & video and charge your iPad 2 simultaneously. Once plugged in, Apple’s no non-sense peripheral kicks in and starts working. No extra settings, no needed adjustments, no guessing of resolutions for your HDTV…IT JUST WORKS! It will work with an iPad 1, but you won’t get any video, just audio. I tested this out with my original iPad. Check out the video at the bottom as our Chief Engineer, Joshua, explains this new feature!

The only downside I see with this is that I’m still connected to a cable. And if you want to do some serious presentations, you’ll need a long HDMI cable. Despite this tethered feel, Keynote and PowerPoint briefings looked beautiful on my HDTV. Maybe down the road this feature will spill over into the AppleTV 2, giving us the ability to go wireless with our iPad content, but for now, I am more than thrilled to have this level of functionality and so is my son!

Post your questions and comments below. If you want to speak to me directly catch me on Twitter (heathaplexvsn) or on facebook (heathaplexvision). Let me know what I can do to help feed your technological needs today!
 

Your iPad 2 On An HD Flat from heathaplexVISION on Vimeo.

Straight from Apple’s website, “Video mirroring doesn’t just turn your iPad into a big screen. It actually turns the big screen into your iPad. With the Digital AV Adapter (sold separately), it works instantly. Everyone sees what’s on your display — even when you rotate iPad from portrait to landscape or zoom in and out on photos. Video mirroring is engineered into iOS so it’s always smooth and slick. Just like your presentation.”

AppleTV’s Little Black Box from heathaplexVISION on Vimeo.

heathaplexVISION reviews AppleTV. This is Apple’s 2nd generation home media device. To find out more about this and other home technology visit www.heathaplexvision.com. Find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/heathaplexvision or on Twitter at: heathaplexvsn. Let me know what I can do to help!

I am a big fan of form and function and certainly would not pass up the opportunity to showcase a fantastic product. If you’re an iPad owner, I can only assume you want the best protection possible. So why not add a little beauty, grace and class to complete the entire package. Enter the DODOCase. For $49.95 you can have yourself a moleskin look-a-like case for your iPad. The tablet actually sits in a precision cut bamboo shell. The entire case is finished off with a faux-leather look can feel. Just like one of those ever-so-popular moleskin journals. If you are interested in buying one for yourself, check out their website a www.dodocase.com. The only thing I can find wrong with this product is the 4-6 weeks for production and shipping. Oh well….I still think it is worth the wait.