Apple Has Sold 8 Million iPads to Worldwide Educational Institutions [iOS Blog]

Today, Apple revealed to TechCrunch that the company has sold more than 8 million iPads to educational institutions worldwide, accounting for some 6.6% of total iPads sold, with 4.5 million of those to U.S. based schools.

In a number of Apple's quarterly earnings calls over the past couple of years, Apple executives have repeatedly shared details of large transactions to educational institutions and of an iPad adoption rate by educational institutions that was unlike any Cook had seen before.


In the Q3 2012 conference call, the company noted that a school district in Texas purchased 11,000 iPads, and then went on to talk about the recent price drop of the iPad 2 to $399:

I think it's particularly helping in K-12. The adoption rate of iPad in education is something I'd never seen from any technology product in history. Usually, education tends to be a fairly conservative institution in terms of buying or K-12 does and we're not seeing that at all on the iPad.

Though the 8 million number is impressive, Apple has been in talks with the Turkish government over a $4.5 billion deal that would provide as many as 15 million tablets to schoolchildren in that country.

Apple today said that 1 billion pieces of free content have been downloaded from its iTunes U service since its inception.

YouTube App Updated with 'Send to TV' Feature, Now Pairs with Smart TVs and Consoles [iOS Blog]

Google today updated its YouTube for iOS app, making its "Send to TV" feature available for the iPhone and the iPad.

Send to TV lets users pair iDevices with televisions that support Google TV, allowing YouTube content to be streamed directly to the television. The functionality of Send to TV is similar to Apple's AirPlay, without the need for an Apple TV.


With the new feature, YouTube users on the same Wi-Fi network can control video playback on the TV and create playlists using the app. Send to TV also functions with both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, though use with consoles requires manual pairing with the iOS app.

YouTube has also been updated with YouTube Capture integration, stability improvements, and improved streaming over slow Wi-Fi connections.

The universal YouTube app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

iFixit Releases Tablet Repairability List, Puts Most Apple Tablets Near the Bottom

Today iFixit released its first "Tablet Repairability" list, which ranks some of the more popular tablets by ease of repairability. The majority of Apple's tablets found themselves near the bottom of the list with a rating of 2/10.


The list was based on iFixit's findings from their teardown work. Two of the biggest reasons for low repairability scores were excessive adhesive and a high probability of breakage during disassembly. The majority of Apple's iPad family were guilty of one or both of those symptoms.

The lone Apple tablet with a good repairability rating was the original iPad with a 6/10, notching in below the Nexus 7 on the list. The only negative for the original was that the battery was difficult to remove or replace.

The list doesn't include every tablet released, but it does include some of the more popular ones like the various Kindle Fire models and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The top tablet on the list was the Dell XPS 10 with a 9/10, while the Microsoft Surface Pro scored worst with a 1/10.

In the past other Apple products, like the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, which received a 1/10, have also received criticism for being difficult to repair from the iFixit team.

Apple seeds OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion build 12D74 to developers

After releasing 12D68 earlier this month, Apple today released OS X 10.8.3 build 12D74 to developers with no major changes. Apple isn't listing any known issues and once again asked developers to focus on on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari.

We'll let you know if developers report any changes in today's build.  Thanks, Anonymous.