iPad - page 214

NetZero made a name for itself in the late nineties by offering free ad-supported dialup Internet access before turning to a low-cost model (still available for dialup and and basic DSL). NetZero is returning to its free/freemium roots with today’s announcement of a contract-free 4G service. The service offers several tiers of data use with the first one being free beyond purchasing a 4G device.

While intriguing, the free service tier definitely illustrates the “you get what you pay for” addage. Some of the other tiers are attractive, but there are some downsides and, quite frankly, a Verizon 4G iPad may be a much smarter investment in the long run.

Following this morning’s comment from Apple CEO Tim Cook that the company is absolutely “thrilled” with its launch weekend sales for the new iPad, AT&T has confirmed record single-day sales and activations for the new tablet.

Apple’s new iPad packs a number of new features that the Cupertino company has been quick to boast about since its unveiling, but there is one that it’s yet to mention: Take the tablet to bed on a cold winter’s night and after half an hour’s reading you’ve got yourself a nice warm slab of aluminum to cuddle up to you.

Unlike its predecessor, the new iPad seems to be suffering from some overheating issues during prolonged periods of use. And it’s causing a number of early adopters to become pretty concerned.

The picture above will be familiar to any of you who owns an iPad. Unnoticeable when the screen is lit up, but distracting in strong sunlight and disgusting when the screen is off, greasy, filthy finger marks are the worst thing about the iPad.

Except that the picture above is actually a Retina-ready iPad wallpaper, ready for you to download and disgust your friends.

Anyone who’s ever flown is familiar with the “please turn off all electronic devices” speech that flight attendants give after closing the airplane door and again shortly before landing. The ban on electronic devices of all kinds exists out of fear that devices might interfere with the planes navigation and other systems, even if the device doesn’t include any sort of radio antenna.

The ban on electronic devices has come under fire recently as the F.A.A. has been certifying the use of iPads in the cockpit during all phases of flight (including takeoff and landing) by various commercial airlines as a replacement for hefty “flight bags” of paper manuals and charts.

In a move that will music to the ears of Words With Friends addict Alec Baldwin, the agency is looking at allowing the use of electronic devices by passengers during takeoff and landing

Apple wasn’t willing to go on record with the new iPad’s initial launch figures just yet, but when quizzed about it during the Q&A session of today’s announcement of an official dividend and stock repurchase plan, Tim Cook did let slip a bit about how well the new iPad had done.

We suspected as much, but the inquisitive engineers at Chipworks have confirmed that the camera inside the new iPad is indeed the same one found in the iPhone 4. The optics, as we already knew, come from the iPhone 4S’ camera.

Chipworks says that “It is very likely that Apple has recycled the 5MP back illuminated CMOS image sensor from the iPhone 4,” — the Omnivision OV5650.

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The most common question I heard after the new iPad launch wasn’t about the retina display, or how I liked the camera. People didn’t ask which games were the best, or how fast it was. The number one thing people wanted to know was whether they should upgrade their iPad 2 to the new iPad. The answer is simple: No, you don’t need the new iPad if you have an iPad 2. But that doesn’t mean the new iPad is a disappointment.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of getting a new Apple product. Opening it up and using it for the first time is always fun. For hardcore Apple fans, the experience can be even emotional. Here’s a humorous video I made about the emotional side of unboxing an iPad.

WIMP computing was invented during the Nixon Administration.

In 1973, Xerox PARC developed the Alto computer, the first to use all the WIMP elements of windows, icons, menus and a pointing device, also known as a mouse.

And it’s in this nearly 40-year-old paradigm that we find ourselves trapped by a quirk of human nature: We’re creatures of habit. We don’t like to change the way we do things. And so here we are, still using a mouse (most of us, anyway).

Everybody’s excited about the new Apple iPad‘s high-resolution screen. But ultimately, the Retina display is just a pretty face. It can’t do anything that the screens on previous models couldn’t do.

In fact, just about all of the features that are considered “new” in the newiPad are really just bigger helpings of the old capabilities: More pixels on the screen. More graphics performance. More megapixels in the camera. More megabits per second with the mobile broadband connection. There’s more of everything. But what’s fundamentally different?

One of the least appreciated new features is one that truly brings entirely new capabilities to the iPad. That feature is Bluetooth 4.0 support.

Read this column at the Computerworld.com site.

Just a few short weeks ago, Michael Dell announced that his company should no longer be considered a consumer PC and device maker. Dell should now be considered an IT vendor with a focus on enterprise data center products, went the message. The company was going to get out of the device and peripheral business.

What a difference a few weeks can make when it comes to a company’s message. While the tech world focused on today’s launch of Apple’s new iPad, Dell’s chief commercial officer Steve Felice was talking up the company’s ability to challenge the iPad in business environments. Or put more accurately, the ability that Dell will have to challenge the iPad when Windows 8 ships later this year.

For the last two years, pre-ordering an iPad has been the surest bet to get an iPad in your hands on launch day. You don’t have to worry about the crazy long lines at the Apple store, or the possibility of Apple running out of stock by the time your number is called. This year things have been completely backwards. Everyone rushed to pre-order their iPad thinking they’ll get it without the hassle of waiting in line. But the lines at stores have been short all day, and the flood of pre-orders have caused delivery delays as some customers are reporting delivery exceptions that have pushed their estimated delivery time from 3p.m. back to 8p.m. and in some cases the next day.

You’ve finally got your hands on the new iPad, now you need some beautiful wallpapers. Apple’s newest tablet sports a gigantic 2048×1536 resolution display, so your old iPad wallpapers won’t look as good as they once did. You need higher resolution images for your new baby.

We’ve gathered some gorgeous, free wallpapers that are all optimized for the new iPad’s Retina display. We tried to include different designs and styles for everyone. Check them out and see if one catches your eye!

When Apple first announced the new third-generation iPad, there were people — and, I suppose, still are people — who were disappointed. Why they were disappointed is inexplicable; what they envisioned is hard to imagine. The flying car of tablets, one supposes: they called the new iPad an “incremental update” when what Apple had just handed them may as well have come spiraling through a time vortex from the future. It’s that good.

Let’s face facts. In the last year, Android makers haven’t even been able to ship a viable competitor to the iPad 2. The new iPad, with its Retina Display and LTE technology, is unlike anything else on the market. No one is even close to making a tablet as fast, as beautiful, as vivid, as thin or as long-lasting as this, and if history is any guide, when the fourth-generation iPad comes out, they’ll still be trying to catch up.

Make no mistake. If the new iPad isn’t a “beefy” enough upgrade for you, you’re not just spoiled. You’re not just completely out of touch with the state of the tech landscape today. No, you’re bonkers. This is the most advanced piece of consumer mobile electronics tech available today.

If you bought a new iPad with LTE today, you may already be using it at the office or planning to do so on Monday morning. The iPad is a great business device and it’s becoming more commonplace for workers to provide their own smartphones and other mobile devices. The addition of LTE really bumps up what you can do on the road or after hours.

But that LTE service, which expands how productive you can be away from your desk comes with a price tag that you’re probably paying out of your own pocket. If you regularly use LTE (or even 3G) service on your new iPad or other device for work, should your employer be footing part of the bill?

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When your pickup your new iPad today, you need to be sure you choose the right carrier if you’re purchasing a 4G model. That’s because AT&T and Verizon use different cellular bands for their 4G networks, so an AT&T iPad won’t connect to Verizon’s LTE network, and vice-versa.

They will share 3G connections, however. Buy a Verizon iPad and stick an AT&T micro SIM in it and you’ll have no problem connecting to AT&T’s 3G network.

When Apple introduced FaceTime on the iPhone 4 nearly two years ago, many users were disappointed to find out that they could only place video calls while connected to Wi-Fi. That was a disappointing fact, but not entirely surprising given the bandwidth that it takes to pull off a high quality video call and Apple’s penchant for making the user experience perfect at all costs.

Guaranteeing a solid experience might have made a good deal of sense when it comes to the iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPhone 4S – all of them are 3G devices and 3G data performance often falls short of terrestrial broadband and Wi-Fi. But the Wi-Fi only restriction remains in place on the new iPad models with LTE even though LTE performance can approach that of many home broadband options – begging the question: Why is Apple limiting FaceTime on its new LTE devices?

Did you just get a new iPad today? Is your excitement erupting like a nuclear bomb? We want to see it. Send us a picture of YOU and your iPad. Get creative. Be funny. Do something random. Whatever. We’ll be collecting pictures throughout the day to create a mega gallery of all our readers with their new iPad, so if you want to be included, send us your funny pictures of you and your iPad.

You can email your pictures to cultofmac (at) yahoo.com, or tweet them to @CultofMac. Hell, you can even post it on Instagram and tag it with #CultofMac and we’ll find it.

Can’t wait to see your smiling faces. Now get to snappin’.

Last week, we showed you how to prepare your old iPad for today’s upgrade to the new one. Now you have your new device, you’ll want to ensure that all of your data from your old one gets transferred over during the setup process. Here’s how to do it — the right way.

People may love the new iPad, but it seems that not everyone loves the name “new iPad.” A recent poll found that more half of consumers don’t like it and would rather see Apple go back to specific model names like the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S.

According the poll, run by opinion and survey site SodaHead.com, 54% of users liked the old naming format better with 46% approving of the simpler designation of the device as simply “the new iPad.”

As with many Apple product launches, today’s release of the new iPad is mostly a consumer event. But that doesn’t mean that the launch won’t have an impact on businesses. In fact, on Monday morning a number of new iPads may be walking into workplaces around the world. And users may be lobbying their employers to purchase the new iPad – if they haven’t stared doing so already.

So, what questions should businesses or IT professionals be asking about the new iPad? More importantly, what are the answers to those questions?

Just 15 minutes after the in-store launch of the new iPad, lines in many Apple Stores have dwindled to nothing. And it’s not a case of Apple’s excellent employees being so efficient that they managed to move all the opening day stock in a quarter of an hour. It just seems there’s not so much demand for it.