As a big fan of the sport, I’ve played a lot of soccer games on the iPad – from full 3D soccer sims like Real Soccer, to little 2D 1-on-1 games. However the most addictive pick-up-and-play soccer game I’ve played so far is easily Deadball Specialist HD by Full Fat Productions Ltd, which pushes your finger flicking skills to the limit!
We’ve known for some time that the iPhone and iPod Touch are not as secure as we would like them to be — and unfortunately the same can be said about the new iPad. The lack of built-in encryption leaves our personal data on any of these devices at risk. Luckily for iPhone and iPod Touch users third party vendors are supplying apps that help fill some of these gaps in security. One such app, which was popular on the Palm OS platform, is SplashID from SplashData, Inc., which stores all your passwords, logins, and banking details.
According to a new report by Reuters citing three inside sources, everyone’s favorite television streaming service Hulu is preparing a subscription-based service that will be available on numerous non-PC devices, with the iPad and Xbox 360 prominently named.
Other than that, there’s little information, but rumors in the past have indicated that a premium Hulu service would be subscription-based and get you access to a complete library of older content, as opposed to free Hulu’s library of newer episodes and randoms.
Since Hulu hasn’t announced anything at this week’s WWDC, if the rumor is true, it’s likely that they will announce their plans for the Xbox 360 console at next week’s E3 gaming expo.
The question is: Netflix is already available for the iPad, and it already offers a lot of old television shows available for streaming. Is there room for another subscription-based service on the iPad streaming much of the same content?
A few days after Tweetie for Mac was named a winner in Ars Technica’s design awards for best Mac OS X software, Tweetie and Twitter for iPhone developer Loren Brichter has said that an iPad version is in the works… and he soon plans to get back into the update cycle for Tweetie for Mac as well.
Yesterday, we posted an iBook that had been hollowed out and modded into a working iPad keyboard dock.
Today? The same concept, but accomplished far more elegantly with a vintage Mac Classic… complete with a custom MacOS desktop to keep things appropriately retro.
Up to 114,000 iPad owners have had their privacy breached thanks to a snafu on the part of AT&T that ultimately (but inadvertently) traded user convenience for security.
The vulnerability was discovered by researchers at Goatse security, who were able to write a script that harvested iPad 3G owners’ ICC-IDs (or integrated circuit card identifier, used to identify SIM cards to a network) and email addresses through the exploitation of a hole on AT&T’s website.
Steve Jobs says the iPad offers “freedom from porn.”
Some dudes say you can put that freedom where the sun don’t shine, Steve.
And to that end, these self-described “dudes” pwned iPad ads around Moscone center where WWDC 2010 is taking place this week.
You can see the video of their pornifying prank here.
They’ve sent a heartfelt (or maybe choose another organ) letter to Steve about it:
“You don’t want people looking at vaginas on a tablet device you named after a feminine hygiene product? Something smells fishy.”
Yuk, yuk. (Or maybe that’s just “yuck.”)
Providing you’ve got the wherewithal to jailbreak your iPad, Apple’s tablet makes a fine SNES emulator, thanks to SNED HD for iPad, which looks absolutely amazing at the iPad’s 768p resolution. Even better, you can pair it with the ControlPad app for iPhone for more convenient controlling with your iPad docked or balanced on your knees.
This antique iBook has been hollowed out and transformed into a working iPad keyboard dock, with a new Apple aluminum keyboard replacing the iBook’s and the iPad itself nuzzled into the iBook’s LCD display hollow, connected together through the umbilical of the official iPad Camera Connection Kit.
This user hack is a bit of a kludge, but we don’t care: we love it anyway. Sure, it can’t close without scratching the iPad’s display, and it would be even cooler if the iPad charged when the iBook was plugged into the wall socket. It reminds us of Lenovo’s now-cancelled Ideapad U1 hybrid tablet/notebook, and makes us wistful for the day Cupertino itself will try to merge the iPad with the MacBook into a single iBook-like device. We can dream!
ColorSplash for iPad by Hendrick Kueck (iTunes Link), who now operates under the name Pocket Pixels, Inc., is an app that allows you to make some very dramatic changes to your photos for its meager $1.99 price tag. The software uses a process called desaturation to convert your photos to black and white while letting you leave behind color within areas you select. The results are astounding.
There’s no shortage of wisecracking about the iPad; its introduction left us wading through a glut of humor (both insipid and genuinely funny). Wisecracking from the iPad, however, is much rarer.
That’s Adam Kontras — also known as the guy with the longest-running vlog, now plugging along for ten years — in the clip above, arguing with his iPad about which one of them is the “iPad comedian,” not coincidentally also the name of his new project.
After watching the back-and-forth, we’re still not clear which of the two can claim the title — but we’re pretty certain the whole thing is hilarious.
Update: Some of you may have noticed the name of Adam’s gig is actually “The iPad Comic,” and not the “iPad Comdedian” as claimed above; laughter can be disorienting.
It has made less and less sense by the day that the iPhone OS would continue to be called that as non-iPhone devices begin to run it. Jobs has just confirmed the earlier rumor of an iPhone OS rebrand: starting with iPhone OS 4.0, it’ll just be called iOS4.
From a humble blogger’s heart directly to Cupertino: thank you, my benefactors. You don’t know how confusing it was to talk about iPhone OS for the iPad on a daily basis. Having “Phone” plugged into the name of an increasingly non-Phone operating system was just ridiculous.
Anyone else wonder if this is the first blush of a reveal of a new iOS-capable Apple TV?
[image via GDGT]
As many of you know, the Steve Jobs keynote speech at the WWDC is going on right now. If you’re following along with our updates and updates from other sites, go join us on our Facebook page in the discussion section and post your thoughts, reactions, and comments about what he reveals today.
First, become a fan of the page, then join the discussion!
Here’s the link directly to our discussion forum on our Facebook page: Steve Jobs at the WWDC
Apple has just announced the initial figures of iBooks at this year’s WWDC, and in addition, they’ve got some great new iBooks features in the pipe.
In the first 65 days, users have also downloaded over 5 million books, or about two and a half per iPad… and five out of six big publishers in the United States claim that the share of eBooks going through the iBookstore is about 22 percent.
Next, some enhancements to iBooks. They’ve just added the ability to take notes to iBooks, as well as the ability to view and read PDFs. For PDFs, you get a whole new bookshelf.
That’s some good additional functionality that should make iBooks more interesting to people who live and breathe PDFs.
Image via GDGT
The iPad has been a huge success for Apple, and it was the first thing Jobs wanted an iPad-obsessed audience to know at this year’s WWDC.
To date, Apple confirms they’ve sold over 2 million iPads, which is one every three seconds. It is now shipping in over ten countries, and Apple wants to prove that they’ve got a revolution on their hands by showing the WWDC audience a video reel of the great coverage the iPad has gotten worldwide.
Additionally, there are now over 8,500 native iPad apps in the App Store. Apps account for 35 million downloads in two months, or about 17 apps per iPad sold. The guys behind Wolfram Associates’ Elements says he made more on the app in the first day of the iPad launch than five years of Google Ads.
Image via Ars
On the eve of WWDC, a speculative story on mp3newswire.net suggests some interesting possibilities for Apple in the video and media space given the explosive adoption of iDevices:
In 1959 5,749,000 television sets were sold in the US, bringing the cumulative total of sets sold since 1950 to 63,542,128 units. This number supported, through advertising, three national television networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS (a fourth, Dumont, folded in 1956) and numerous local independent stations. Television was big business by the start of the 1960’s.
Now here are another set of numbers. As of April this year Apple sold 75 million iPhone and iPod touch units, devices capable of delivering video via Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Add to that figure 2 million iPads and counting. By the end of the year Apple should have about 90 million smart mobile devices in the wild.
An upscale Manhattan tailor has designed a $600 suit jacket with an iPad pocket.
Mohan’s custom tailors, founded in the 70s before men needed gadget pockets, said the somewhat gimmicky-looking iPad suit is the result of customer requests.
You don’t have to be very sartorially savvy to wonder how the jacket — pictured either flat or with the model holding it — could stand carrying a 1.5 pound device on one side without deforming the fabric or giving you a lopsided look. Mohan’s says it has “several dozen” appointments scheduled for fittings.
Samsung is getting into the tablet game with their own would-be iPad killer, but unlike many other Atom-based netbooks, Samsung has a secret weapon: an A4-like mobile CPU created by (now Apple owned) Intrinsity, the Hummingbird S5PC110.
Yesteday, an AT&T spokesperson put the kibosh on any possibility of using the iPhone’s new tethering abilities to drive your iPad.
“It won’t be possible to tether the iPhone to the iPad to share Internet access,” an AT&T spokesperson bluntly said.
The usual hue and cry against AT&T resulted, but now, AT&T is clarifying matters, saying they don’t have any problem with iPads and iPhones tethered together in conjoined bliss. Rather, they blame Apple.
“You’ll need to speak with Apple. There is no AT&T policy around tethering and the iPad,” a spokesperson told Gizmodo.
Well, that’s certainly good news if true. I can’t think of any reason Apple wouldn’t allow this if their network partners are onboard. Hopefully, then, iPad-to-iPhone tethering is something we’ll see in iPhone OS 4.0.
Children are excellent arbiters of the truth, their reactions are honest and straightforward. In the case of the iPad, those reactions include excitement and awe.
Apple has noticed. After a group of students from Wesley Chapel, Florida was photographed trying out some iPads at their local Apple store, the images made their way to Apple. The company just sent 13 free iPads to some very lucky students, and may use the pictures in an upcoming ad campaign.
Kudos all around – a win for everybody here! Thanks to AppleInsider for the tip.
Paper Toss for iPhone is a brilliant pick-up-and-play game that is guaranteed to kill some time when you’re waiting for your train, when your boss is out of the office, or when you’re waiting for your little ones to give up the TV. If you’re one of the 21,000,000 paper tossers out there, you’ll be pleased to know the game is now available on the iPad, including a new level and improved visuals for the larger screen. But is it worth that $2.99 price tag?
Despite offering tethering for laptops, AT&T will not allow you to tether your iPad to your iPhone.
An AT&T spokesperson told TechFlash “it won’t be possible to tether the iPhone to the iPad to share Internet access.”
Tethering your laptop to your iPhone — an option built into the upcoming iPhone 4.0 OS — will be possible via USB or Bluetooth. But the iPad’s Bluetooth profile for tethering is not enabled.
TechFlash: AT&T: No iPhone-iPad tethering
The iPad has already gone beyond kid-appeaser — a recent study reported that the most downloaded apps are for adults using the device at work.
So if you want to give the iPad a permanent place in your office, you might want something to prop it up with that doesn’t involve pencils and rubber bands.
While in some office environments, funky DIY stands (including a cat) might be conversation starters, in others, they just look, well, funky.
Here are our top five picks for iPad stands that deserve a place next to that sleek perpetual calendar and won’t look like some random piece of junk when your iPad is elsewhere.
1. Old Time Computers Marble finish stand. For that banker desk look, try this handcrafted stand in hardwood with a marble finish. It comes with a USB cable and audio jack, available for $59.00 on Etsy. The same artisan has some terrific wooden stands in the same vein — including a combo iPad/iPhone dock charger — as well as antique-looking external keyboards with a steampunk aesthetic.
Artist johannes-p-osterhoff pwned the squeaky clean iPad advert in a Berlin subway station by putting porn in right before the device launched in Germany.
The attention gained from his protest over the “porn-free device” crashed his server, so osterhoff (who prefers to go all lowercase) got back to us just now on how he did it, sending Cult of Mac exclusive photos of his guerilla art operation at the Rosenthaler Platz stop in Berlin’s subway.
A few of our especially astute readers thought the osterhoff’s Photoshop skills could use work, but as you can see in the above pic, his protest over the allegedly porn-free iPad was an old school cut-and-paste operation.
If you believe iPads are not just for keeping the offspring entertained during car trips, there are numbers to back that up.
Half of the top ten paid iPad apps are “productivity tools,” in other words, apps that grown-ups use for work.
According to Distimo, a start-up that analyzes app stats, the top two paid iPad apps in April are word processor Pages and Goodreader, a large-file PDF enabler.
Pinball HD is the only game in the top five paid apps at spot no. 3, followed by note taker app Penultimate and presentation app Keynote. (You can download the full report here.)
