iPad - page 282

At the top of our favorite iOS apps list this week is Time Flies – a simple but useful application that helps you keep track of how long it’s been since you last completed a chore or task. It’s now even easier to remember when you last called your parents, bought flowers for your wife, or cleaned the house.

Our second must-have app is a quick and powerful to-do app called SpeedTask. It features a simplistic, easy to use user interface, with free ‘cloud’ syncing that allows you to access your tasks from any device, or sync them with iCal on your Mac.

Also featured this week is the redesigned ReBirth, which is now available on the iPad, emulating the classic Roland TB-303 Bass synth and the Roland TR-808 & 909 drum machines. Making music on your iOS device has never been so powerful!

Apple quietly tweaked its iTunes application for the iPad today and introduced support for their music-based social network Ping.

Ping is now available through a tab at the bottom of the application, and it gives users access to their feed, their profile, who they follow, and who follows them. The function also connects to a Twitter account and automatically tweets anything you ‘like’ or post on Ping.

Ping for iPad also features a concerts section that allows users to see concerts coming up in their area, upcoming tours, which concerts they’re attending, and links to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster.

The team behind OpeniBoot, which allows users to run the Android OS on the iPhone 3G, are now hard at work on porting the hack to the iPhone 4 and the iPad.

Jailbreak expert Hexxeh posted a video on his blog yesterday that shows OpeniBoot running on the iPad. There’s not much to see at this point, but the video’s below if you’d like to see it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIixUYaLufo

This is a great step towards booting Android on Apple’s latest iOS devices, and it shouldn’t be too long before the hack is available for release.

If you have an iPhone 2G, 3G, or first-gen iPod Touch, and you’d like to try booting Android, it’s now even easier through Cydia – check out John’s recent post here.

At the top of our favorite games list this week is the second instalment of Amateur Surgeon – the game that lets you attempt surgery with a pizza cutter. With new patients, new surgeries, and a whole slew of medical ethics violations, this sequel sure packs an entertaining punch.

Gobliiins is another of our must-haves this week. Relive the Gobliiins adventures in this blast from the past that redelivers the original screenplay and soundtrack from the classic puzzler.

Also on our list of must-haves is the fantastic LEGO Creationary and Spider-Man Total Mayhem in HD. Check them out after the break!

No way would I ever plug in my Gibson SG Les Paul Custom into my iPhone 3G. Just no way. Now that I have the iPhone 4 and its increased processor speed, crystal clear pictures, and hardcore stage presence, I’ll reconsider.

Seriously though, playing an instrument through an iDevice is more of just a hobby or gimmick if you’re going to try and use it for modeling amps and effect pedals. What really convinced me to hook up a quarter inch jack to my phone was the Moog Filtatron App. Synthesizers are most certainly perfect for and acceptable to use in your music even if they’re coming from you Macbook or iPad. If they have the Moog name attatched to it then you’re just that much more legit.

If you have a box full of cables tucked away somewhere, you may have all that you need to construct your very own iRig. Even if you purchased all the cables from The Shack, you’ll probably come away with a cheaper version, and you’ll feel like MacGyver.

Here’s how I put together my own audio interface:

Don’t be fooled by the iPad’s thin case and fragile-looking glass screen. It may look vulnerable, but the iPad is nearly indestructible, says an artist who specializes in destroying Apple’s products.

Artist Michael Tompert, who’s first exhibit of Apple-inspired artwork opens today, tried to destroy an iPad by hitting it with a sledgehammer.

“I hit it with a sledgehammer about 10 times,” said Tompert at a preview of his art show, which opens today. “It did nothing. It’s incredible. It was really, really hard to destroy.”

Instead, Tompert took a blowtorch to the iPad.

“I had to blowtorch it for 15 minutes until the inside boiled and it exploded from inside,” said Tompert.

I hope you didn’t jump out of bed at the crack of dawn today, throw open the curtains, crack open a few eggs in the frying pan, connect your iPad to iTunes and then sit down to spend the next few hours to continuously hammer the “Check for Update” button, because we’ve got some bad news for you: it doesn’t look like iOS 4.2 is going to drop today.

Publicity stunt? Sure. But that still didn’t stop photographer Jesse Rosten from lighting his latest shoot with nine iPads mounted on several pieces of plywood. Now that’s an Apple-centric strobist!

Boldly joining the digital age, Danish audio systems manufacturer Bang & Olufsen has introduced the BeoSound 8 portable docking station for all iOS devices.  With their usual brushed aluminum elegance, this Boombox Extraordinaire docks with iPods, iPhones and iPads, and offers a line-in AUX connector and USB port to accept audio input from your Mac or PC.

City councils across the country are adopting the iPad, in the hopes that the magical device can help them go paperless and save money, but taxpayers are skeptical of the savings.

The just-proposed scheme in Aurora, east of Denver,  is pretty typical: the city council there wants to try out iPads to see if it can save printing out the information packets for meetings. The city currently spends about $900 per member every year to print, assemble and deliver the info packets to the 10 council members and the mayor for a total of around $9,900.

They’ve budgeted $729 for the iPads plus $180 per year for data plans, so by using iPads they would break even in about a year.

Residents, however, don’t appear to buy it. Some 62% responded “You’re kidding me. What a scam. Like they read all that stuff anyway” to a poll in the Aurora Sentinal, just 36% responded “Why not? Saves trees, saves money. Go for it.”

The Washington Post has chosen to advertise their new iPad app by portraying legendary journalist Bob Woodward as a decrepit moron completely befuddled by technology so easy to use that even 99 year olds can quickly master it.

We laughed, although we’re not sure if it’s at the Washington Post’s self-deprecation or just the stupidity of it all. Probably a bit of both.

Other than Samsung’s Android-powered Galaxy Tab, Research In Motion’s upcoming BlackBerry Playbook seems like it will be the first real competition to the iPad’s dominance over the tablet market when it is released in early 2011.

Featuring a 7-inch display, a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and both front and back-facing cameras, as well as an entirely new operating system based on Adobe Air, the BlackBerry Playbook certainly has the specs to make a splash… but a lot will depend on whether or not the price is competitive with the iPad.

According to RIM CEO Jim Balsillie, the BlackBerry PlayBook will at least match the entry-level iPad’s price when it drops. In an interview with Business Week, Balsillie said:

“The product will be very competitively priced,” and when asked whether it will be about $500, Balsillie said “no, it will be under that.”

Good news so far, but my guess is that he’s referring to a subsidized price. The Samsung Galaxy Tab has roughly the same specs as the PlayBook and it doesn’t cost under $500 without a subsidy. Given that RIM exclusively makes phones and 3G-connected devices, I’d speculate that the PlayBook will end up being cheaper than an iPad… but only as long as you’re willing to sign a two-year contract for the “savings.”

Along with AirPlay, AirPrint was a fiercely promoted new feature in iOS 4.2, promising a powerful new printing architecture that allows iOS devices to easily and wirelessly print to any networked printer.

Don’t be surprised, though, if AirPrint is nowhere to be seen when iOS 4.2 is released on Friday: according to a report on MacStories, Apple has pulled support for AirPrint from iOS 4.2 at the last minute.

After the success of its stunning, minimalist laptop stands, U.K.-based Pendle Products has turned its talents to the iPad, and has produced a stand that boasts a functional, stylish design, that helps you to make the most of your tablet device.

Whether you’re watching a film, typing up a document, or you’d just like to show off your holiday snaps on your coffee table, the iPad stand from Pendle will let you do it all.

Remember the ApplePeel 520? It was basically an iPod Touch case that contained a cellular radio: plug it into your jailbroken iPod Touch and you could transform it into an iPhone… or at least make or receive phone calls and text messages with it. Right.

Well, Yosion — the company who made the device — is now preparing a version of the ApplePeel 520 for the iPad. They don’t seem to want to turn the iPad into a big phone with it, though, but rather to bring 3G capabilities to WiFi-only iPads.

How much is a good iPad app worth? According to a new report, quite a bit more than a decent iPhone app… and the margin between the two is growing every day.

How far in advance would Apple film a commercial for the second-generation iPad? Depending on the answer to that question, Apple might be readying the iPad 2 for release, getting an ad in the can for next April… or, well, not filming an ad for the iPad 2 at all.

Skyfire Web Browser is a full-featured web browser and the first application for iOS that converts Adobe Flash videos in to HTML5, allowing you to play them on your iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s been incredibly popular in its first week and has rocketed to the top of the paid chart in the App Store. It’s also one of our favorite apps for iOS this week.

Also on our list of must-haves is iDJ – an application from Numark that makes it simple to create seamless, synchronized playlists using you iTunes music library on your iPad. iDJ’s patented technology allows you to assemble customized soundtracks to accompany and enhance every occasion.

AppSwitch is another great app that deserves a place in our favorites this week. It has been described as “the missing app that should have been in the box,” and allows you to monitor all apps and processes running on your iOS device so you’ll always know what’s running in the background.

Check out our full list of iOS must-haves after the break!

One of the App Store’s must-have games this week is Floop – a highly entertaining physics-based puzzler in which you shoot acorns in to the mouth of a squirrel. It sounds easy, but you’ll need to practice your skill and accuracy to complete each level.

NBA Elite 11 by EA Sports is also a Cult of Mac favorite this week, and it’s also the only true 5-on-5 NBA game for iOS. Delivering authentic basketball action with graphics made to maximize your device’s Retina display, and EA’s trademark impressive gameplay.

Revolt is a dual-stick 3D shooter that boasts advanced, fast-paced gameplay, sharp 3D graphics, and killer music & sound effects – also on our list and guaranteed to blow the socks off any shoot ’em up fan!

The iPhone is undeniably huge in Japan, where the device accounts for over sixty percent of all smartphones sold. The iPhone 4 alone has been the number one selling handset in Japan for the last 18 weeks.

That’s not to say its dominance is unassailable though. Call it a spin, call it a blip, but this week saw the iPhone fall out of the number one spot in Japan for the first time in over four months, as Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy S smartphone careened into the standings at number one.

This is going to become the Must Have item of the Holiday Shopping Season for Apple iOS device owners.

Trust me.

Yesterday, Facebook hosted a media event to announce the company’s plans to tie local business advertising into its Places functionality, but at the Q&A following the event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a surprising claim: the iPad’s not mobile.

The characterization came after an attendee asked Zuckerberg when the iPad would get a native Facebook app.

The answer? Never. Facebook expects you to use the Facebook website on the iPad. And why? Because Facebook only makes app for mobile devices, and “the iPad’s not mobile… it’s a computer.”

When the iPad was first announced, the little “lock switch” was originally intended to be a mute toggle.  When the product launched, it was a “screen orientation lock”.  Apparently it’s headed back for mute purposes.  I think it’s a shame, as I see several paths to more usefulness.

Paul Riegler at the Executive Road Warrior blog wrote an interesting piece about what made him switch from an iPad to a new MacBook Air.

In short: the iPad was a nice portable computer, but the Air is better. It offers more flexibility and freedom. The iPad was a good solution but bulky (because Riegler was toting a keyboard for it too), and sometimes – not often – he found himself wishing for a plain old USB port, or the chance to see something in Flash.

Because Apple is already using the brand name iPad, two companies have tried to name their competitive tablets something completely different: The nPad.

Not recommended. Here’s why.