John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
After the tragedy of the recent 9.0 earthquake and the resulting tsunami, Apple has decided not to launch the iPad 2 in Japan on March 25th.
“We are delaying the launch of the iPad 2 in Japan while the country and our teams focus on recovering from the recent disaster,” said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris.
There is no rescheduled launch date planned, and the length of delay will depend upon how long it takes for Japan to recover from recent tragedies, which have culminated with the threat of meltdown at the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Yesterday, Apple Bitch broke the news that Apple Stores would be opening an hour early today to start selling a new shipment of iPad 2s to customers. Today, they’re noting that while many stores did open early in case they had iPad 2s to sell, most stores received no new iPads at all… and those that did only got an extremely limited number of units (less than half a dozen).
I can personally confirm this, as I went down to Boston’s Boylston Street Apple Store this morning an hour before opening time. While the Boylston Street Apple Store did did have staff waiting at the door at 8:30am, nearly an hour and a half before opening time, they confirmed that they had no new iPad 2 units to sell when asked, and suggested checking back the next day at the same time.
Overall, if you haven’t ordered an iPad 2 already, it looks like we’re going to see an extremely constrained number of Apple Store iPad 2 units for the next month at least. However, reports indicate that the store will put any new units up for sale first thing the next morning after their delivery, so if you want an iPad 2 sooner rather than later, calling in late for work might be the only way to get one.
Here’s a weird fun fact for you on a slow news Tuesday: there’s a very real familial link between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and TV’s Homer Simpson. Here’s how.
As some of you may know, Steve Jobs was put up for adoption as an infant. What you may not know is that Steve Jobs’ birth parents are Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, who put him up for adoption because they weren’t married at the time.
Later, when they married, they had another child: Mona Jandali. However, Jandali abandoned both Mona and her mother when Mona was five. Joanne eventually remarried, at which point Mona decided to take her stepfather’s name and became Mona Simpson.
Speaking of Samsung, can you tell that Apple’s biggest rival in the nascent tablet market is feeling the heat from the iPad 2? According to new rumors and the leaked spec sheet above, Samsung’s already readying to counter Apple’s second-gen iPad by dropping the price of their 7-inch WiFi tablet the Galaxy Tab to just $399, undercutting the cheapest iPad 2 by $100 bucks.
It would be a smart move by Samsung. After the iPad 2 was announced, Samsung openly admitted that they would need to reconsider the pricing of their forthcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1, a ten-inch version of the original Galaxy Tab that is more iPad-like in form factor.
Of course, it also implies a certain degree of desperation to take a credible share of the tablet market from the iPad. At $399, Samsung would almost certainly be selling the Galaxy Tab at a loss. $399 is about what I think a Froyo-based 7-inch tablet should cost, but it’s probably not what it does cost to manufacture. Samsung won’t be able to keep this up forever.
If you like staring at silicon without its clothes on, you’ll love this: Chipworks has done a teardown of the iPad 2’s new A5 processor.
It’s a technical read, and frankly, I’m not Cylon enough to understand most of it. The most interesting detail for us laypeople is that it’s actually pretty honking huge: at 120mm, it’s actually more than twice the size of the A4’s 53mm CPU, allowing Apple to cram in more cores, transistors and a bigger GPU for more oomph all around.
According to Chipworks, the SoC is still pretty much off-the-shelf. It’s manufactured by Samsung, despite Apple’s rumored partnership with TSMC to build iPad 2 chips, so it doesn’t look like Apple’s given Sammy the boot just yet for daring to release their own tablet.
Ouch. If you haven’t ordered an iPad 2 yet, I hope you’re willing to wait over a month to get one, as iPad 2 shipping estimates have slipped again, this time to four or five weeks for most models.
iPad 2 shipping estimates have been slipping since mere hours after it went on sale online in the wee hours of Friday. Originally put up for sale online at 1AM PT with a 3-5 business day shipping estimate, that slipped in mere hours to 5-7 days, then to two weeks and now to over a month.
If you haven’t ordered your iPad 2 online yet, your best bet might be to drop by your local Apple Store on the way to work today. Rumor indicates that Apple Stores will open at 9am today to service iPad 2 sales on a fresh shipment, and I can confirm that, at least at the Apple Store I’m currently parked at, Apple employees are already bustling around inside.
Still haven’t bought your iPad 2 yet and wondering which flavor of 3G to get: AT&T or Verizon? Ma Bell’s now sweetening the pot if you’re willing to sign up with them. According to a mailing AT&T is sending around, they’re offering a free month of iPad data for a limited time, with no commitment or associated fees. All you have to do is call them up at 1-888-237-5888 and it sounds like they’ll hook you up.
AT&T phrases this offer as a way to “try your iPad” on their mobile broadband service, but of course, if you bought an AT&T iPad 2, you don’t really have a choice either way anymore.
Way back in 1978, Apple Corps successfully got Apple to agree never to enter the music industry in court… a ban that Apple was obviously successful at whittling away at, slowly but surely, over the next twenty odd years. That culminated in a 2007 settlement that resulted in most of Apple Corps’ trademarks being given to Apple, Inc… a settlement that ultimately led to the release of the Beatles catalog on iTunes back in late 2010.
Curiously, though, one Apple Corps trademark that Apple never got was for Apple Corps’ distinctive and fruity logo. That’s now changed, with Apple having applied for Apple Corps’ Granny Smith apple logo with the European Treademarks Office on March 11th, 2011, covering everything from computer hardware, online social networking services, musical instruments, games, clothing, advertising and broadcasting.
In trademark disputes, gaining control over your opponent’s official logo is what is called a fatality. After twenty three years, it looks like the dispute between Apple Corps and Apple is over once and for all.
Back in September, Apple filed a patent that would make the audio jacks in their iOS devices even smaller, using deflectable pogo pins instead of cantilever beams to extend into the jack’s cavity and conduct audio and electricity to your headphones.
It was an interesting patent, but Apple’s patents have a tendency to never materialize. This one did, though: according to Kevin Fox of Mozilla Labs, the iPad 2 is the first Apple device to use the new pogo pin audio jack.
Check out this video of the iPad 2 playing Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade on a 50-inch LG HDTV running at 1080p, thanks to the new iPad HDMI adapter. That’s a ten-dollar game looking just as lurid and beautiful in high-definition as a $60 Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 game.
Speaking to Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop, Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller says that demand for the iPad 2 has been “amazing.”
How amazing? Amazing enough that they’re admitting that there are supply shortages and they can’t produce them fast enough… at least by implication.
“We are working hard to get iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible,” said Muller.
Analysts are saying that Apple could have sold as many as a million iPad 2s over the weekend, based upon estimated shipping times online and the long lines outside Apple Stores for the iPad 2s launch.
This isn’t the first time Apple has admitted that they just can’t make iPads fast enough to satisfy demand: at Apple’s EOY earnings call in February, Apple COO Tim Cook admitted that he thought they could have sold even more iPads in 2010 if they’d been able to build more them.
Still trying to get an iPad 2, but unwilling to wait the current four weeks wait by orering online? Reports suggest you’ll have a chance to buy an iPad 2 tomorrow morning, if you get to an Apple Store early.
Want to grab an iPad 2 but didn’t manage to get one over the weekend? Word on the street has it that Apple will be opening its Retail Stores one hour early on Tuesday to sell people a new shipment of iPad 2s.
While no official announcement has been forthcoming from Apple, anecdotal reports from shoppers across the country trying get an iPad 2 this morning, say they were told by retail staff that even if the Apple Stores were re-stocked today, the iPad 2 would not be sold until tomorrow and for this reason, the Stores would open early for dedicated iPad 2 sales. We have confirmed this with three retail stores.
In other words, if you want an iPad 2, it sounds like it’s a fool’s errand to spend a lot of time running back and forth between Apple Stores today, looking for a new shipment. Instead, prepare to wait in line first thing tomorrow morning. Could we have a mini repeat tomorrow morning of the long lines we saw on Friday?
The iPad 2 might cost the same as the first-gen tablet… but several components used to make it have actually increased in price: most notably, the price of the iPad 2’s touch display and the cost of manufacturing its new, dual-core A5 SoC.
The biggest component cost increase is for the touch display, which shot up almost $32 in price to $127, compared to the first-gen iPad’s $95 touch display.
John Gruber over at Daring Fireball said something recently that made a lot of Apple’s more seemingly incredible business decisions make sense to me: Apple wants to cut out the middle men by becoming the only middle man anyone using an iOS device needs to go through.
If you keep that in mind, it makes today’s latest news about Apple’s NFC ambitions make more sense. Reportedly, Apple has told carriers that the iPhone 5 won’t have NFC, as Apple is reportedly “concerned about a lack of a clear [NFC] standard.”
In a few short hours, the iPad 2 will go on sale at Apple Stores and approved retailers across the country, and if you’re anything like us, you’re probably discouraged by the up to three week wait times on online orders. Maybe you’re even considering dropping by an Apple Store after work and seeing if you can’t pick up an iPad 2 then. What are the lines like, though?
Short answer: it’s all over the place, but in front of most Apple Stores, there are lines, often substantial ones. New York’s Apple Store lines are reportedly crazy, and even at lesser known Apple Store locations like this one in Indianapolis, people have been reportedly lining up since 4am.
Where there don’t seem to be as many lines is at the big box retailers selling iPads: Wal-Marts, Best Buys, AT&T Stores and the like. Searching Twitter, it appears that at a lot of big box retailers, there are no lines at all… even where a line waiting area has been set up for the iPad 2.
All of this is anecdotal though. What about you guys? Where are you seeing lines for the iPad 2, and how long are they? Please drop us a comment if you’ve seen a line (or a conspicuous lack of one). At the very least, you might be able to help a fellow Apple fan out.
Boom. A mere three hours after it first went up for order, iPad 2 shipping times have already slipped from 3-5 business days to 5-7 business days.
What does this mean? Exactly what we thought it meant when Apple refused to take preorders before release to begin with: Apple knew they couldn’t satisfy demand for a nine day preorder. They’ve got constrained supply.
If you want an iPad 2, either prepare to get in line or order it now. That shipping time is only going to rise as the day goes on… I wouldn’t be surprised to see it hit 2-4 weeks by the end of the day.
Edit: As of 8:38am, it’s now 2-3 weeks shipping date. Hope you got your order in, guys.
Apple’s obsession with thinness is well-known, but its latest patents might be one of the company’s most interesting pursuits of that obsession yet: they describe Apple’s attempts to make an iPod thinner than the headphone jack you have to plug into it.
The patents describe various ways to make this idea work. For example, one patent describes an audio socket that’s less than fully circular, allowing a portion of the jack to actually protrude from the socket. Another mention a flexible material covering the opening of a semi-circular socket that would expand when a jack was inserted. The last method uses a hinged housing, or two doors that swing open, when a jack is inserted.
This isn’t the first patent we’ve seen from Apple for smaller audio jacks. In September of last year, we reported on an apple patent that used deflectable pogo pins instead of cantilever beams inside of a headphone socket, making it even smaller. At the time, we lamented that Apple’s efforts in miniaturizing the headphone socket were necessarily limited by the size of the headphone jack itself… but it looks like Apple’s figured out a way around even that.
Is this the iPhone 5? iDealsChina sure seems to think so. They say this is an engineering diagram of the next-generation iPhone, and while it shares the same form factor as the iPhone 4, there’s one obvious difference: a larger display made possible by shaving the side bezels down to the thickness of a razor blade.
Just a few minutes ago, after a nine day wait, the iPad 2 went up for order… and even if you dropped you order within seconds of them becoming available, Apple’s estimated shipping delay was between 3-5 business days. Worse, free shipping is your only option with the iPad 2: there’s no way to overnight it.
For a guy like me, the fact that the iPad 2 won’t be shipping out for almost another week was a problem. I have an obvious professional interest in having an iPad 2 as quickly as possible. Yet as I considered my options, I ended up hitting the order button anyway, because I just don’t think I can be part of the Apple Store launch day spectacle this time.
If you’re up right this second, there can only be one possible reason: to order the iPad 2. As you can see from the image above, iPad 2’s went up for order a little before 1AM PT / 4AM ET. All models came with an estimated 3-5 business days shipping delay, and there is no option to get overnight shipping: free shipping is the only option.
The only problem? Seconds after making the above order, the order page appears to be down again. Was 3-5 business days delivery just a technical blip, and will the iPad 2 come back up sometime soon with a more aggressive shipping date? Or is Apple already sold out? (Edit: Nope! Back up again, with the same 3-5 business days estimate!)
We’ll keep you updated. Anyone grab their iPad 2 yet? Which one’d you end up ordering and why?
As predicted, iOS 4.3 has just dropped and is ready for download now onto supported hardware, running the gamut of third and fourth generation iOS devices from the iPhone 3GS to the iPad 2.
Changes in iOS 4.3 include faster web browsing thanks to the Nitro JavaScript engine, personal hotspot functionality for AT&T iPhones and iTunes home sharing, allowing users to stream their iTunes libraries directly to their device. Full details are available here.
Given up hope on the white iPhone 4 yet? You probably should, but at least one analyst hasn’t: Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple will start production of the white iPhone 4 this month and ship it no later than early April.
According to Kuo’s checks, Apple has solved the problem of light leaking onto the camera sensor through the back glass plate of the white iPhone 4 by making changes to the film material used to coat it.
With the camera issues fixed, Kuo says manufacturers will initiate production of the GSM iPhone 4 in white this month. Kuo doesn’t know if the white Verizon iPhone 4 will ship at the same time.
To be honest, at this point, the only reason for Apple to release a white iPhone 4 at all is pride. They’ve already hopelessly boned it for this generation: releasing a white iPhone 4 in the last few months of its lifespan isn’t going to get many buyers. With Apple reportedly looking at revisiting an alumium
TiVo’s not doing so well these days. A gadget I once considered it nearly impossible to live without has since been buffeted by streaming set-top box competitors like the Apple TV and Roku Box, even as more and more HDTV manufacturers bake DVR functionality right into their sets. Last year, TiVo actually lost $84.5 million while simultaneously running up a deficit of nearly $800 million, so needless to say, they need to pull something out of their posteriors quick if they want to stay in business.
It looks like that “something” might well be repositioning the TiVo box as a streaming device that will pump its recorded content straight to your iPad. TiVo is asking customers how they feel about the option to “stream live TV, DVR recordings and TV shows from a cable company’s On Demand library to one’s iPad” from both the comfort of their home and while they were out on the road.
That sounds like a pretty killer feature to me, especially given the feature paucity of the current TiVo remote app. Unfortunately, I don’t know if TiVo can pull it off: TiVo announced that HulU Plus would come to its DVRs “soon” way back in September of last year, and that functionality still hasn’t arrived. TiVo needs to be sprier if they want to stay relevant.
Apple really seems to want people to take Friday afternoon off. Not only are they not taking pre-orders for the iPad 2, but now they’re mailing customers, telling them to get in line at their local Apple Store if they want an iPad 2 at launch.
“Be the first to get the next iPad. This Friday, March 11, at 5:00 p.m.” the mailing reads. “The Apple Retail Store is the best place to experience iPad. Our Specialists will show you around the features, help you choose the perfect model and set everything up just the way you like. So you’ll be up and running before you leave the store.”
Just in case you’re about to call your boss, though, please take a hint from Cult of Mac: as long as you don’t mind waiting until Saturday, the easiest way to get your iPad 2 is going to be to set your alarm for 12AM PT / 3AM ET and order it off of Apple’s site with overnight shipping. Or swing by your local Target, Wal-Mart, Verizon, Best Buy, AT&T or Verizon store on the way home and try your luck. You do not need to start camping out now, though. A saner head can prevail.
The superintendent behind the abandoned $1.3 billion school iPad deal should go to 'teacher jail,' says union.
I’m guessing this has happened to all of us at least once: you finally cave to temptation and buy that Apple product you’ve had your eye on, only to have Cupertino release a new version a couple weeks later.
To be fair, Apple’s usually pretty good about at least giving you some money back when that happens, but it’s true that our wallets are often the casualty of Apple’s secretive product release schedule.
Good on Apple for doing the right thing in this case, though: an Apple retail store in New Jersey has agreed to exchange an order of original iPads and replace them with iPad 2s.
Why the exception? The iPads in question were ordered by a class of students at Rutgers’ Center for Management Development, which was scheduled to start on March 11th. Since an iPad was necessary to take the course, but because students had to pay for them themselves, Apple decided to take pity upon a class full of kids who literally couldn’t have waited to buy the iPad and exchange them, even eschewing their usual restocking fee. Good for Apple.
