Buster Hein - page 247

Obviously, the best way to get the new iPad on launch day was to pre-order it as soon as Apple’s website came back up. That option is now gone and you’re looking at shipping times of 2-3 weeks before you can get a new iPad in your hands.

It’s ok. Despite everything Samsung says, waiting in line for the iPad isn’t that bad. In fact, it can even be a lot of fun. If you’re planning on braving the weather and the crowds Friday morning here is our killer guide on the gear you need to not just survive, but thrive on launch day and walk away with the new iPad model you want.

Encyclopedia Britannica is the oldest English encyclopedia still in production, with roots dating all the way back to 1768. If you went to school before the dawn of Wikipedia, you might have fond memories of rummaging through Britannica’s pages while researching a sixth-grade report.

Sadly, the 32-volume printed edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica will no longer be published, as the company focuses on presenting its content digitally.

Siri is arguably, the best digital personal assistant in the world. She can tell you if you need an umbrella. Wake you up when your late. Remind you that you forgot to buy your girlfriend a birthday present, and so many other tasks that sure are nifty. She’s better than having a personal assistant because she doesn’t get all pissed off when you tell her to go get you a coffee, or call in sick so she can go hangout at the beach with her friends.

Did you know Siri can sing too? Yeah, she totally can, and it’s like having J.Lo in your back pocket at all times, without the obtrusive lady lumps. Need proof? Here’s Siri singing a tear jerking robotic rendition of Stairway To Heaven.

Everybody has heard of how crappy Apple supplier Foxconn treats their workers. Long hours. Low pay. Shoddy conditions. Working at a Foxconn factory is in no way glamorous and wonderful, and it looks like even Foxconn is ready to admit as much. In an effort to reshape their image, Foxconn’s Shenzhen factory is looking to hire a Saftey and Security Officer and a Lifestyle Services Manager to make life a little bit more fabulous for their workforce.

The coolest thing about the Microsoft Kinect is that it makes your feel like a freaking Jedi. Controlling a device by moving your hands or feet is ridiculously awesome when the technology works. Apple has been slow to jump on the motion control bandwagon, but that’s not stopping some clever developers from taking advantage of Apple’s built-in webcams and implementing their own crazy motion control technology. Enter Flutter – the new OS X app that lets you control all of your music without having to ever click a mouse.

In 1971, Coca-Cola unleashed one of history’s most iconic commercials on the world. “I’d Like To Buy the World a Coke” showed people of various ethnicities and social classes standing on a hilltop, singing about how much they’d like to buy everyone in the world a soft drink originally based on coca leaf extract. The commercial was a huge success during its time, but watching it today becomes slightly unbearable with all of its cheesy happiness.

No one sings on hilltops anymore, so with a little help from Google, Coca-Cola has reimagined their iconic advertisement to be more fitting in the digital world. The end result is pretty crazy: rather than singing about buying the world a Coke, users of the Coca-Cola iOS app can actually purchase a Coca-Cola for people across the world.

Here’s the video showcasing the app:

In Phoenix, Arizona, rain is a commodity scarcer than a purple elephant slowly lumbering down Main Street. Consequently, people go straight up loco when their iPhone’s weather app predicts rain. Most of the time the hours sadly glide past and the clouds and precipitation never show up. A collective mourning rumbles across the city, and meteorologists cower under their desks, ashamed at their disastrous predictions. They never can quite seem to predict the rain.

It’s sad that we can put a man on the moon but still suck at predicting the weather. IBM’s mind-blowing “Deep Thunder” iPad Weather app is seeking to change all that though, by becoming the most insanely accurate weather predicting tool ever.

Oh snap! My iPad is leaving China and making its way across the Pacific already. By this time next Friday I’m gonna be getting super intimate with my new iPad’s 3.1million pixels and learning their deep dark secrets.

Has your iPad shipped yet? Or are you one of those unlucky souls in the U.K.? Post a pic of your iPad’s shipment status in the comments so we can all collectively celebrate that Big Jobs in the Sky who is about to rain down a storm of euphoric iPad glory on us come Friday.

No technology company in the world has been more scrutinized than Apple when it comes to labor conditions. Over the past couple months everyone has been quick to point out how crappy the conditions are at Apple’s supplier factories – Foxconn. But what a lot of the tech press hasn’t done, is investigate the conditions at the other major tech companies in the world. Not only is Apple the only company talking about what they’re doing to fix the problem, but they are the only major tech company that is allowing independent audits of their factory conditions.

It’s a simple question, phrased politely, and sent to the right people. Does your company have any plans to let independent auditors check up on your suppliers’ factories?

Here’s what some of the world’s biggest electronics companies said in response:

Apple’s new Thunderbolt ports are already the fastest connection ports on the market, but if Intel has their way they’ll be even faster in the near future. In order to boost the performance of Thunderbolt, Intel is working to support PCI-Express 3.0 protocols which will significantly boost data transfer rates.

In their rush to announce the new iPad on Wednesday, Apple hurried through the details of their new Apple TV and didn’t talk much about the new ability to stream your movies straight from iCloud to your Apple TV or iOS device. What’s awesome about the new feature is that it works for movies that you didn’t even buy from iTunes: iTunes Digital Copies.

I’ve always wanted my own butler that I can order around and have him go fetch me a delicious Chipotle burrito whenever I want. Problem is, I don’t have half a billion dollars to pay for one, so I’ll never be cool like Batman and have a elderly british fellow named Alfred to satisfy my every need. Siri is the closest I’ll ever come to having a true personal assistant, except she doesn’t come equipment with Michael Caine’s impeccable British accent. But is Siri better than Alfred?

Do you know what was the most tweeted about thing yesterday? No, it wasn’t Peyton Manning. It was the iPad 3, the new iPad. Twitter just released the chart shown above to show just how bonkers the Twittersphere went during the iPad keynote.

Sure, it wasn’t on par with the death of Michael Jackson, but it was a pretty big deal. There are a couple of peaks that stand out:

Kyle Lambert is one of the best iPad artists on the web. He also happens to be a big fan of Pixar’s animation team, so when he started following Lee Unkrich – the director of Toy Story 3 – he noticed how passionate Lee is about Stanley Kubrick and his film The Shining. Combining Toy Story 3, with Lee’s obsession for The Shining and Lambert’s iPad drawing talent resulted in one of the more interesting artistic mashups we’ve seen in a while – Toy Shining.

We could tell you more, but we’ll just let you oogle at Kyle’s awesome iPad drawings of Woody occupying Jack Torrance’s spot in Kubrick’s cinematography masterpiece, but remember, everything was created just using an iPad.

Does the idea of an Apple TV with Siri functionality make the insides of your toes tingle with excitement? We’re there with you, and we totally want to know what it would be like to have Siri in our living room whispering us sweet nothings. Apple didn’t announce a new iTV with Siri functionality yesterday, so we’ll have to wait a little while longer to see what the future holds, but to hold us over till that day comes, Tripp and Tyler made a new video to show us what a Siri TV would be like.

It is absolutely breathtaking.

The curtains have barely drawn to a close after Apple’s new iPad keynote, but the spotlight is still shinning on Cupertino, only this time in a negative way. A new report by the Wall Street Journal claims that Apple’s E-Book pricing has come under scrutiny of the U.S. Justice Department who is threatening to sue Apple for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books.

The announcement of today’s new iPad with its retina display has undoubtedly propelled technology a few years into the future. The amount of features packed into the new iPad and its accompanying software is pretty mind blowing when you slow down and take a minute to think of our progress over the last 40 years. Mankind has been dreaming of such a device for over 75 years. In the April, 1935 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics, this crazy contraption above was their dream version of the iPad.

Our awesome Twitter follower @presstopher was one of the first to get iOS 5.1 downloaded on his iPhone and noticed an odd update – his AT&T iPhone 4S (that runs on the 3G network) is now lying, claiming that it is running on a 4G network. iOS 5.1 changes AT&T iPhone 4S to show that they are using a 4G network. It’s complete malarkey and we’re stunned that Apple and AT&T have made this move.

[polldaddy poll=”6016375″]

Did we forget something? Tell us in the comments and we’ll add it to the poll!

Apple dropped the price on the iPad 2 down to $400 for a brand new unit, but if you’re looking to save a little extra cash, buying a refurbished model is a great option. The Apple Store is back online, and right now Apple is selling refurbished iPad 2s for $349. Considering the iPad 2 is the second best tablet on the market (thanks to a recent demotion from the new iPad), shelling out $349 for a new iPad 2 is a sweet bargain.

Think about that. That’s just $150 more than a brand new Kindle Fire and you can do a whole lot more with it than Amazon’s puny tablet. If you know someone who is hankering for a tablet, this is what you buy.

Alright, so you’ve been glued to your monitor the past few hours, drooling over the new iPad’s ridiculous screen, crazy camera, and insane apps. Now you’re just wondering which iPad model you should buy. Are you torn between Wi-Fi only and LTE? Or maybe the decision between the black and white model is too hard for you to make on your own. Don’t worry. We’re here to help you out and find the absolute best new iPad for you.

Well that was quick. The Apple Special Event just concluded about 30 minutes ago, but Apple already has the full video available for viewing right here. Grab some popcorn, a couple pints of Ben and Jerry’s and maybe some root beer so you can kick back and relive the 90 minute keynote in all its visual glory.

The new Apple TV didn’t get a lot of discussion time during the keynote today, and you might have missed a few new features. The new interface looks great, and we’ve been dying for 1080p support for years. Apple just updated the Apple TV page on their website, so you can now dig into all the detail of the new device and bust out your credit card once the store comes back online.

Tim Cook & Co. just wrapped up their event on the new iPad. At the very end of the keynote the last slide showed the Apple logo as pictured above. Is this a new logo Apple will be using? Apple rarely makes artistic adjustments to their logo during keynotes. We think it looks pretty neat and is a great modern interpretation of the retro rainbow Apple logo.

What do you think? Will Apple use this new logo more often, or was it a one time thing? Let us hear it in the comments.

The iPad 3 is going to have an amazingly sharp screen. Like the iPhone 4S, users won’t be able to see the individual pixels of the iPad 3’s retina display because all 3,145,728 pixels will be densely packed together at 264 pixels-per-inch.

Ok, that’s cool, but what does that actually mean? Well, it if you wanted to get the same amount of pixels into the iPad 2 using its current technology you’d have to use a 19inch screen. The iPad 3 packs more pixels total than a 42inch LCD TV.

Here’s a couple other visual comparisons: