Students Hack School-Issued iPads Within One Week

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes “Los Angeles Unified School District started issuing iPads to its students this school year, as part of a $30 million deal with Apple. Now Sam Sanders reports at NPR that less than a week after getting their iPads, high school students have found a way to bypass software blocks on the devices that limit what websites the students can use. The students are getting around software that lets school district officials know where the iPads are, what the students are doing with them at all times and lets the district block certain sites, such as social media favorites like Facebook. ‘They were bound to fail, ‘ says Renee Hobbs, who’s been a skeptic of the iPad program from the start. ‘There is a huge history in American education of being attracted to the new, shiny, hugely promising bauble and then watching the idea fizzle because teachers weren’t properly trained to use it and it just ended up in the closet.’ The rollout of the iPads might have to be delayed as officials reassess access policies. Right now, the program is still in Phase 1, with fewer than 15, 000 iPads distributed. ‘I’m guessing this is just a sample of what will likely occur on other campuses once this hits Twitter, YouTube or other social media sites explaining to our students how to breach or compromise the security of these devices, ‘ says Steven Zipperman. ‘I want to prevent a “runaway train” scenario when we may have the ability to put a hold on the roll-out.’ The incident has prompted questions about overall preparations for the $1-billion tablet initiative.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Students Hack School-Issued iPads Within One Week

Apple has released iOS 7.0.2, a small update addressing the security flaw that enabled users to bypa

Apple has released iOS 7.0.2, a small update addressing the security flaw that enabled users to bypass the lockscreen. Read more here . Read more…        

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Apple has released iOS 7.0.2, a small update addressing the security flaw that enabled users to bypa

Amazon Introduces Mayday, A Unique And Amazingly Useful Live Tech Support System For Kindle

Live support has always been a dream for major retailers. While chat solutions already exist, today Amazon announced a new support service available on Kindle HD products called Mayday. It is a single-click, hardware-support solution that lets users work with a remote tech support representative to solve problems with their tablets. The service allows you to see the remote tech support person in a small window on your screen and also displays your screen on the support person’s computer where they can watch what you’re doing online, annotate the screen, and even tap through the interface. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it’s like “actually very similar to having someone standing next to you” and offering tech support. The service is unique to Amazon, and the company built a full infrastructure to support it at their HQ in Seattle and on board the hardware. By compressing the video signals, they are able to send more data to the devices from tech support and allow tech support to see the data remotely. Amazon’s goal is a 15-second response time, and they will ramp up staffing around major holidays when Kindles are flying fast and furious under the Easter tree. While some may be concerned about privacy, rest assured the support person will not be able to see out of your camera, and you can mute your audio at any time. Bezos equated the experience to going into a store for tech support. “If you went to some physical store location to ask for help for your device, they’re going to see everything, ” said Bezos. More important, however, is how many people the service will help. “Are we in charge of our devices or our devices in charge of us? Getting good tech support isn’t easy, but it’s important, ” he said. The service will be available on the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets. You can read more about the service at Amazon’s Mayday page .

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Amazon Introduces Mayday, A Unique And Amazingly Useful Live Tech Support System For Kindle

Top 10 Secret Features of iOS 7

Apple released iOS 7 to the public this week, providing a new design and a handful of cool features to iPhone- and iPad-lovers everywhere, but some of the best stuff lurks beneath the surface. Apple failed to advertise quite a few awesome features. These are our top 10. Read more…        

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Top 10 Secret Features of iOS 7

How to Trick iOS 7 Into Letting You Hide Apple’s Annoying Default Apps

Be honest: when was the last time you opened your iPhone’s Stocks app? Yeah, us neither. Everyone has their own habits when it comes to iOS apps, and fortunately, YouTube user macmixing has posted a wonderful little hack that lets you get rid of any offending stock apps from your home screen— without actually deleting them altogether. Read more…        

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How to Trick iOS 7 Into Letting You Hide Apple’s Annoying Default Apps

The First Flexible Silicon Paper Could Revolutionize Mobile Gadgets

Imagine a smartphone you can roll up and slip into your shirt pocket. Or a tablet that can be folded like a newspaper and slipped in your back pocket. It’s an idea that’s been tossed around in science fiction for a years, but now it’s a small step closer to reality because researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China have developed the world’s first flexible silicon . Read more…        

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The First Flexible Silicon Paper Could Revolutionize Mobile Gadgets

An Experimental Cargo Ship Launched For the ISS Today

The first flight of the Cyngus, a new experimental spacecraft, lit off at 10:58AM today from NASA’s newly popular Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia . The Cygnus is an unmanned cargo vessel, and for this test mission it’s carrying about 1, 300 pounds of supplies to the three astronauts currently orbiting in the ISS. Read more…        

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An Experimental Cargo Ship Launched For the ISS Today

iOS 7’s Biggest Annoyances (and How to Fix Them)

With the release of any new operating system comes a slew of slight problems and annoyances. iOS 7 is no different. While certain things won’t annoy everyone, a few minor problems are bound to trouble people. With that in mind, here’s how to fix some of the more common annoyances. Read more…        

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iOS 7’s Biggest Annoyances (and How to Fix Them)