John Brownlee - page 105

I’m amazed at how well Apple is managing to meet demand for the new iPad so far: 16 hours after the pre-order page went live, you can still order an iPad for March 16th delivery. That’s a herculean feat, given how many people want one, but Tim Cook’s been complaining for the last year that they would “sell more iPads if they could build more”… obviously he’s since gotten his house in order.

Never the less, it looks like Apple is finally starting to run out of pre-order units. Specifcally, as of writing, delivery estimates for the white iPad LTE on AT&T have slipped to March 19th, although you can still get any of the models on March 16th in black, and Verizon and WiFi-only models are still unaffected.

The moral? If you want a new iPad, it’s time to pre-order now. My guess is that before the day has passed, the delivery estimates are going to start slipping across the board.

You just can’t keep the Dev Team down. Just hours after Apple officially released iOS 5.1, it’s already been jailbroken. But as usual with these 0-day jailbreaks, there are some caveats.

Netflix was a big part of the new Apple TV presentation today, and almost like an afterthought, the streaming video king has an announcement of its own: Netflix is getting enhanced integration with iTunes and the Apple TV.

Naturally, the biggest upgrade to Netflix on Apple TV is support for 1080p video an Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, but Netflix has also announced that users will now be able to sign up for Netflix directly on the Apple TV and even pay using their iTunes account.

That’s a big coup, but it also implies Netflix is giving Apple a 30% cut of every sign-up. Given how many studios are fleeing them lately, seems to me like Netflix could use all the money it can get.

Now that the iPad has LTE, the old 20MB limit on over-the-air downloads just isn’t going to cut it anymore. So Apple has more than doubled it to 50MB, applicable to movies, apps, games, music, and more.

We’ll let you know when it’s back up.

It’s not available for download yet, but on Apple’s official iTunes page, there’s reference to iTunes 10.6… which it looks like we can expect to go live today.

So now that the new iPad is here, what about the iPad 2?

Well, it’s continuing. And it’s dropping $100. That means a 16GB iPad 2 with WiFi will only cost $399, and the 16GB iPad 2 3G will cost $529. No other options or capacities anymore.

That’s a nice discount, but hardly comes close to competing with the Kindle Fire at $199. But then again, Apple doesn’t feel like it has to.

And looks like the rumors were true. Now that the iPad can both take and show 1080p images, Apple’s unveiling iPhoto for iPad. And, as with everything Apple does, it’s supposed to be amazing.

According to Phil Schiller, “Why do it need iPhoto for iPad? If you’re someone who truly loves photos, that’s what it’s for.”

What can you do with iPhoto for iPad? All of the best things you can do on iPhoto for Mac — effects, editing, photo journals. There’s also smart browsing, brushes, multi-touch effects, share on social networks, and more.

Wonder when the new iPad will be available in your country? For most countries not covered by the March 16th date, it’ll be available on March 23rd.

Epic Games has just announced another game in their successful Infinity Blade series, called Infinity Blade Dungeons. And they say it’s going to push the boundaries of what you can do on a mobile device.

It’s a much more free-form game than Infinity Blade, which looks like it plays a lot like Diablo III or God of War. You can chain-attack enemies, craft new weapons, fire spells and more.

“The Unreal engine is unleashing the power of the new iPad,” says Epic. “This device has more memory or screen resolution than either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.”

No date, sadly, but it’s coming soon!

Looks like everyone was right: the iPad 3 will indeed have LTE for speeds up to 72Mbps, along with HSPDA 3G for speeds up to 42MBps. Everywhere else will fall back on 3G.

But who are Apple’s partners? In America, Verizon & AT&T, but not Sprint. In Canada, Rogers, Bell & Telus.

Since they use different bands, in the US, there will be too different LTE iPads: a Verizon and AT&T SKU.

Both models are 3G world-ready. And, even better, they support personal hotspot, the first time an iPad has done that!

“This new iPad has the most wireless bands of any device that’s ever shipped.” It should work anywhere, on almost any network. That’s amazing.

Even more amazing? Apple says LTE battery life is 9 hours, just one hour less than WiFi battery life of 10 hours. That’s a huge leg up on the competition.

[Image via GDGT]

And looks we nailed it. Siri’s not coming to the new iPad. Instead, you’re getting just voice dictation.

“Of course, we have our great software keyboard. We have a new key on the bottom — just tap it, speak into your iPad, and it’ll dictate what you have to say,” says Phil Schiller.

Nice, but since everyone was sure Siri was a lock, this is sure to be a disappointment. Looks like we were right, though: Apple won’t ship Siri on machines that can’t be guaranteed a persistent Internet connection.

[Image via GDGT]

And here’s what we’re all waiting for: Apple’s announced the new Retina Display iPad!

Apple has just announced the new Apple TV, supporting 1080p. And to make sure you have content to watch on it, all iTunes Movies are jumping to 1080p too.

Senior VP Eddie Cue says that TV shows will pop up in 1080p on iTunes the day after they are released.

In addition, the new Apple TV will have iTunes Match support, just like all the other iOS devices out there.

There’s more. Photo Stream is coming to the Apple TV, so when you take a picture on your iPhone, it automatically pops up on the Apple TV.

Oh, and did we mention there’s a new streamlined interface?

You can even access Movies you’ve already bought direct from your Apple TV now, just like TV Shows and Music were already available through iCloud.

The new Apple TV will be available March 16th, for $99, same as before.

Apple has just announced that iOS 5.1 is coming to everyone today, after months of speculation.

And no surprise: as rumored, Siri is coming to Japan!

We’ll have download links available for iOS 5.1 as soon as it becomes available. Stay tuned.

[image via Engadget]

And it’s begun. Apple CEO Tim Cook has just strode on stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in front of gathered journalists to debut Apple’s latest and greatest product.

What will it be? A new iPad is all but a certainty, and convincing rumors peg it as a Retina display affair with 4G LTE, but we won’t know until Tim Cook opens his mouth.

Only half an hour now until the iPad 3 is unveiled, but a last minute leak says it’s definitely shipping with LTE. This is the iPad now showing up in Apple’s own inventory system:

MD369LL/A – IPAD WI-FI 4G 16GBLACK – USA.

There you go. 4G. LTE. Who else is getting one?

Well, this is interesting timing. LiquidMetal — the space-age alloy that Apple already uses for the iPhone’s SIM ejection tool and which they licensed for future products — has just announced they are shipping commercial parts to several unnamed customers. Can anyone say LiquidMetal iPad 3?

Well, eager readers, we’re just a couple short hours away from Apple’s iPad 3 event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and while nothing’s ever certain up until the moment Phil Schiller announces it, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s coming.

The question is: do you care? Are you excited about a new iPad 3, or a new Apple TV, or even a budget iPad 2? Or is your old iPad still working just fine, or do you think this is a bunch of hype all together?

Let us know in our poll, then join us in the comments to tell us what you think Apple will announce and what you’re most excited about. We’ve got to kill time before the announcement somehow!

Hey, what do you know. The Apple Store just went down. Probably just routine maintenance, don’t you think? It’s not like Apple’s going to announce a new iPad or Apple TV today or anything, LOL.

It’s looking more and more likely that the iPad 3 won’t just be getting a Retina Display tomorrow, it’ll be getting LTE. The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky is now reporting that their sources indicate LTE iPad 3s will ship in two flavors for both AT&T and Verizon’s network.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess or soothsayer to divine that Apple’s been holding back the iOS 5.1 update to debut it alongside the iPad 3, and so it appears, with reports now indicating that iOS 5.1 has just gone Gold Master.

Calvin And Hobbes — Bill Watterson’s beautiful elegy to imagination, impishness and inquisitiveness — is still a comic strip that is unmatched in my affections over fifteen years after the final strip ran. In fact, it’s always been interesting to me to imagine what Calvin might be doing now if he’d aged in real-time. He’d be around 32, and really, what company better for him to explore his imagination and his inquisitiveness than Apple?

Since such musings tend to pop around my head, I was delighted to stumble upon this great Reddit thread, in which Redditor ClassicWinger merged Calvin And Hobbes with OS X Lion’s default wallpaper to come up with an all new wallpaper, in which Calvin and his tiger look up at a densely packed universe in the hushed awe it deserves. You can download it in full-resolution here.

Love the wallpaper above, but wishing for something more appropriate to Mountain Lion? We’ve got it after the jump, alone withan even better wallpaper, featuring my favorite Calvin alter-ego, Spaceman Spiff!

Although bloggers and analysts refer to Apple’s rumored upcoming HDTV as the iTV just out of simplicity, there’s no actual indication that Apple would call it that. None. No one knows for sure if Apple’s even working on an HDTV, let alone what they’re going to call it.

The only evidence that Apple might call an HDTV the iTV is US Patent Patent No. 2011/0154394 A1, which has a solitary image indicating that Apple might, at least, be using the name iTV internally. But that’s not stopping the usual cadre of doofuses from trying to eke some payouts (or, at least, some free publicity) out of the whole thing. In this case, it’s American-based iTV Entertainment, who are threatening to crash tomorrow’s iPad 3 event to prevent Apple from releasing an HDTV with the same name.

Cult of Mac’s reviews editor Charlie Sorrel and I have a bet going on whether or not the iPad 3 will have LTE.

I figure Apple’s got to see the impact of LTE on their iOS devices sometime, and the iPad is the perfect launch platform for it: they can sell the functionality as optional and at a premium, as they do 3G, making sure a minimum number of people get burned by a lack of LTE deployment in their area (and falling back on HSPA+ when LTE isn’t around)…. all the while the iPad 3’s biggery battery mitigates 4G power management issues.

Charlie thinks that argument’s stupid, and LTE’s far too immature to deploy. At stake is a solid buck, or half Charlie’s monthly salary, so tensions are high as the iPad 3 announcement lurches closer and closer on the calendar.

The latest report suggest that buck could very well be mine.