iPad - page 249

Apple hit a home run with its wireless Bluetooth keyboard. The keyboard is compact, good-looking and functional. It even works great in conjunction with devices like the iPad, thanks to its easy setup over Bluetooth.

Being only 12.5mm thick, the Levitatr Bluetooth keyboard features a design that Apple would be proud of. With a LED backlit set of keys that magically lifts off of a flat slab when you’re ready to type, this Kickstarter project has us already wanting to buy.

We knew Apple’s iPad dwarfed RIM’s PlayBook, but now the image seems even more lopsided, thanks to shipping numbers from a group of analysts. The Cupertino, Calif. company shipped 19 iPads each time the BlackBerry maker shipped one of its rival devices. Little wonder RIM, facing financial scrutiny Thursday, is back concentrating on its smartphones.

Whatever you do, don’t blink. Otherwise you might miss the superbness of this Who-tastic iPad case, and instructions for making your own.

For just two dollars, you can buy the pattern for this smart multi-dimensional iPad sleeve, and make it yourself with some yarn, some needles, and a sonic screwdriver.

Just like the real TARDIS, this one’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. On the outside, you have a 7.5inch by 9.5inch crocheted sleeve, but on the inside you have more hours of entertainment than most of us can handle in 11 (count ’em) lifetimes. Having a time machine would actually be quite a good way of keeping up with it all, wouldn’t it?

(Hands up who else is really enjoying the current series of Who?)

Apple’s iPad will soon be spawning in Brazil, according to the country’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Aloizio Mercadante. Until now, the device has been produced solely by Foxconn in China, but by December Brazilian iPads will be hitting the market.

Life in plastic isn’t so fantastic for a pair of iPad thieves named Barbie and Ken.

The crimes took place in Denver, where a woman named Barbie Alvarado is accused of answering ads on Craigslist for iPads then stealing them with the help of an accomplice named Ken.

Despite expectation Amazon’s tablet could challenge the iPad, analysts aren’t setting the bar too high for immediate sales. Indeed, the internet retailer will sell just 2 million of its 7-inch devices for the remainder of this year, one Wall Street expert suggests.

I tend to travel a fair bit, and when I’m not flopping down on friends’ couches (which happens more than I should probably admit — thanks guys), I often turn to Bill Shatner’s pugnacious figure and punch it, firing up the Priceline app to find a killer deal. And now that it’s a universal app, it’s even better on the iPad.

Police in Florida are looking for three men who took $60,000 in iPads from a Best Buy early Monday morning.

From the surveillance video, it took the trio dressed in dark clothing and gloves just a minute to “complete the theft,” the police report says.

Have you noticed the prices of iBooks increasing? It’s not a mystery that publishers now view electronic versions of their hardcover editions as a way to save money. Turns out publishers are adopting Apple’s “agency pricing” model, a move making cheap iBooks on your iPad or iPhone as rare as dime store novels.

While we all patiently await the release of iOS 5, Apple’s assemblers could be getting a gold master release from September 23, according to one analyst — just in time for a mid-October launch of the long-awaited iPhone 5.

Timing is everything. That could be the message from news Apple’s chief iPad 2 supplier is expected to churn out 20 million of the tablets for the third quarter – just in time for the all-important holiday sales period. Shipments of the iPad 2 for the quarter were already expected to hit 14 million, thus topping the last period’s 9.25 million tablets Apple sold.

In the case of a German judge, looks are everything when deciding to permanently ban Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in that European nation. “For the informed customer there remains the predominant overall impression that the device looks” like Apple’s iPad, a Dusseldorf court ruled Friday.

While blogging services like Posterous, Tumblr, and WordPress have long catered to those of use who like to write up posts on our iPhones, Google made us wait a long time for an iPhone app for Blogger. But now it’s finally here, and it does a great job.

A few short months ago, we wondered whether the wee ones should be learning their ABCs with iPads.

The answer appears to be yes: Fall 2011 brings a bumper crop of U.S. preschools launching iPad programs. From Maine to Tennessee, kids are saying teary goodbyes to their parents and being greeted in schoolrooms with sympathetic teachers (we hope) and Apple’s magical device.

Since we can no longer carp about people smoking, it would seem we have to find some bone to pick with fellow diners in restaurants.

Case in point: a server in a busy San Francisco restaurant (where else?) wonders if it is a breach of etiquette 2.0 to bring your own mobile entertainment to the table.

For those concerned Android was catching up with Apple’s iPad, JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz has this message: stop your worrying. “Beyond the iPad, there has not been another high-volume tablet offering, yet,” he told investors Thursday. When one does, don’t look to Mountain View, but Microsoft for a credible Apple competitor.

Japan is the next stop in Apple’s far-reaching attempt to stop the spread of Samsung rival devices. The tech giant has filed suit in Tokyo asking the court to suspend sales of the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II smartphones, as well as the Galaxy Tab 7 tablet. The Galaxy S is outselling the iPhone in this tech-obsessed Asian nation.

Every time some company ships a touch tablet, the press immediately compares it to the Apple iPad.

“Motorola Xoom Android Tablet May Be First iPad Killer,” enthused MSNBC.com back in January.

As it becomes clear that Amazon’s long-awaited tablet is really an Android-based Kindle optimized for buying things from Amazon.com, some headlines are suggesting that it’s not a competitor to the iPad after all, but just a glorified eBook reader.

“No Worries, iPad, Amazon’s Android Tablet Is Just a Nook-Killer,” said Forbes.com.

These headlines have it all wrong. The upcoming Amazon tablet not only competes directly against the iPad, it’s the only tablet that does so.

No other company besides Apple and Amazon are selling tablets as part of a larger strategy to control the future of music, movies, TV shows, books and more.

Read the rest of the story here.

(Picture courtesy of WIRED.)

Parliamentarians in Western Australia demanded a trial of Apple’s tablet computer, waging the kind of epic battle between users and the IT department that happens in companies around the globe.

The lawmakers it so badly 15 of them threatened “industrial action” if iPads were not allowed on the list of devices for their laptop allowance after being told by the ICT gurus that the device did not yet meet existing IT infrastructure or security standards.

If you’re in the vicinity of the Tice’s Corner Apple retail store in New Jersey on Saturday, check out this iPad Art event and class.

Teamsters Union boss James Hoffa thinks Apple and other tech companies relying on overseas factories to make the gadgets Americans love are being unpatriotic. “Everything [Apple does] is in China, or in Asia somewhere…There’s something wrong with that,” Hoffa told a cable news interviewer on the eve of Labor Day.

The iPhone could generate nearly half of Apple’s revenue by calendar 2013, with the tech giant forecasted to sell 143 million smartphones and 68 million iPads, according to a high-profile analyst Wednesday.

This remote controlled monster truck is the coolest iOS accessory I’ve ever seen. Forget remote controlled helicopters; nothing wreaks havoc like a monster truck, and this one from Dexim is controlled entirely by your iPhone.

Facebook issued an update to its iPhone application last night, and while it introduces a number of nice new features, it also removes all code related to the iPad version — meaning you can no longer install the official Facebook app for iPad before its release.

There’s a treat for photography fans this morning, with the launch of the British Journal of Photography‘s official iPad app.