iOS 8 & iCloud Drive - Important Information for Primary Solution Teachers

Today, from MLTI, I received this important email notification that would be good for all in our district, who have the iPad mini and MacBook Air, to review before Apple's updates this Wed, Sept 17th:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dickson, Juanita <juanita.dickson@maine.gov>Date: Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 10:07 AM
Subject: [MLTI_iPad] iOS 8 & iCloud Drive - Important Information for Primary Solution Teachers
To: "mlti_ipad@lists.maine.gov" <mlti_ipad@lists.maine.gov>

Dear Apple Primary Teachers, 

iOS 8 will be available on September 17th. The Apple MLTI Project team will start supporting iOS 8 on that date. As such, we highly encourage all users to update to iOS 8 when it becomes available. If you want to learn more about iOS 8 you can learn more at the overview page (http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/).

After upgrading to iOS 8 the setup assistant will ask you if you would like to upgrade to iCloud Drive. iCloud Drive is a new feature of iOS 8 that can replace "Documents and Data." iCloud Drive will allow you to safely store all your presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, images, and any other kind of document in iCloud and access them from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC. 

During the iOS 8 upgrade, it is highly recommended that Primary Solution Teachers DO NOT enable iCloud Drive prior to the release of OS X Yosemite. 

Teachers that have received an iPad mini and MacBook Air as part of MLTI should be aware that if they enable iCloud Drive when updating their iPad mini to iOS 8, they WILL NOT be able to access the updated versions of documents stored in iCloud Drive on their MacBook Air until they upgrade to OS X Yosemite. OS X Yosemite will be released this fall. 

Once OS X Yosemite is supported by MLTI, users are encouraged to upgrade their MacBook Air devices to OS X Yosemite and then upgrade to iCloud Drive on all of their devices upgraded to OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. 

If a teacher does turn on iCloud Drive prior to the release of OS X Yosemite, it is important to note that no data will be lost. The files can be downloaded, edited and uploaded on a device that has not been updated to OS X Yosemite by going to https://www.icloud.com. 

If you have questions on this or other MLTI-related issues, please call the MLTI Help Desk at 1-800-919-2775 and use the pin# 4MLTI. 

Thank you,
The Apple MLTI Project Team
_______________________________________________
MLTI_iPad mailing list
MLTI_iPad@lists.maine.govhttps://mailman.informe.org/mailman/listinfo/mlti_ipad

Splashtop 2 Update - Yes, Another One

For those who frequently use Splashtop as their remote desktop app in their classroom, you know that Splashtop releases updates to their product rather frequently.  This is a good thing.  It tells me that they are always seeking to improve themselves and provide more for their customers.  Their past couple of updates have proven that this is true.  This current update that was released today is yet another improvement.

Splashtop, now, offers annotation ability over live remote desktop screen.  This can be very handy when you want to point out specific features on your screen display while you are floating around the room.

This is from their update blog:

What's New in Version v2.3.0.5

- Annotate over any live remote desktop screen, for presentations or classroom instruction (optional in-app purchase; part of Productivity Pack)
Please install the latest streamer from www.splashtop.com to enable annotation

Please contact your Tech support to have them update your Splashtop Streamer on your Macbook for the annotation feature to operate.

Have You Updated Your iPad?

For those who are new to the iPad scene, Apple will update the operating systems (OS) of their iOS products (iPhone, iPad, iPod) from time to time to either fix some bugs or offer some new helpful features.  Currently the latest OS update is iOS 6.1.

If you are not familiar with how to update your iPad, Apple explains this process.  This article explains how you can update your device either wirelessly (for iOS 5 or later), or updating through iTunes.  Be sure to review the tips at the end.  This current update (from 6.0 to 6.1) took about 5min, however if you have not updated your iPad in a while, it may take up to 10 to 30min.  So, as suggested, make sure your device is plugged in to a power source, so the battery does not run out during the upgrade.

For those who are visual learners:

If you are wondering why this is such a big deal and are interested in seeing the details of what exactly is being updated, changed or fixed, browse through this Wikipedia article of iOS updates.  Also, check this visually robust article from The Verge.  Some of Apple's update are minor; sometimes they are quite major.

Please contact me if you are having issues with your updates.

Google Image Search Revamped

Google just announced yesterday their new design to their image search.  Before, when you or your students were searching for images, you would have to click on the image to get more information on the image, or to be able to save it in its original size (incase you didn't know, before when you saved an image from Google's image search right from the thumbnail, you were not getting the original size; only the thumbnail size).

Now with Google's beautiful design layout, you do not have leave your image search to another page location.  You can simply browse through the list of thumbnail images; find one you like; click on it to enlarge and for more information without leaving the page.  Use your arrow keys while the enlarged image is open to toggle through all of the other images and view them and their information instantly.

Review CNET's article from yesterday morning for more details.

Try it out