iPad - page 299

The iPad 3G is the iPad everyone’s been waiting for. Let’s face it: the 3G data connection and GPS makes this the iPad you don’t want to to leave at home.

• There’s almost no physical difference between the iPad 3G and the Wi-Fi only iPad, except for the strip of black plastic on the back covering the 3G antenna, and the microSIM slot on the left-hand side.
• The contents of the box are the same (iPad, charging brick and sync cable). The only difference is a pin tool to pop the microSIM slot.
• Like the WiFi iPad, you must connect it to iTunes before it powers up. It will not switch on out of the box. There is no software update at present. The iPad doesn’t register itself with AT&T you call up the Settings menu and hit Cellular Data option.
• Signing up for a data plan wasn’t too bad. You type in username, password, and credit card details. You have to create a new account, which seems to be linked to an AT&T account if you have one (it pulled up my address that it had on file). The sucky AT&T connection in this part of San Francisco made it slower than it should submiiting the data and waiting for a response. However, the activation of the data plan took only a couple of minutes.
• Be warned: monthly data fees are ongoing unless you cancel. This is going to be easy to forget at the end of the month. If you cancel and want to re-enroll, you have to go thorough the entire enrollment process again. Kinda painful.
• Web surfing is pretty slow — but that’s because AT&T is overloaded and the signal weak here at my office. It’s not really a fair test. I’ll conduct more tests later at home.

Here is what the iPad looks like close up:

As expected, the iPad 3G has already been jailbroken — only a few hours after its launch.

MuscleNerd of iPhone Dev Team posted pictures and a video to YouTube showing a jailbroken iPad 3G running Cydia.

MuscleNerd used the “Spirit” jailbreak, an software tool that promises untethered unlocking of Apple’s recent devices (iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3G, and iPads). The Dev Team has promised to release Spirit to the public soon. In preparation, be sure to backup your SHSH Blobs. You can find a step-by-step guide from Redmond Pie here.

Here is MuscleNerd’s video showing Cydia running on an iPad 3G.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFmy1rolqpw&feature=player_embedded

Via Redmond Pie. Thanks Taimur.

Less than a month since its release, there are nearly 5,000 apps available for the iPad, most are games but there are some important early sellers in the medical and finance titles.

Distimo, a start-up that analyzes app stats, tallied some 4,870 applications for Apple’s magical tablet to date. (You can download the full report here.)

Games dominate iPad apps, with 32% of the total at 1,577 titles so far, Entertainment and books trail far behind, together they total about half as many apps with 455 and 396 titles, respectively.

The first thing you’ll want to do on your brand new iPad 3G is sign up for a data plan. It’s pretty easy, and you can do it right on the iPad. It’s basically half-a-dozen finger taps (except for typing in your credit card number of course).

Here are step-by-step by instructions, courtesy of this knowledge base article from Apple.

Last year, accessory LUXA2 released the H1-Touch stand for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which allowed you to position your handset on your desk like a miniature monitor. It looked great, but wasn’t particularly useful.

I don’t think the same can be said for the LUXA2 H4, a larger version of the same stand for the iPad. The reason for that is mostly because it allows you to easily position the iPad as a monitor when paired with a Bluetooth keyboard… and unlike the official Apple dock, the H4 has a swiveling mount that allows you to easily rotate your iPad from landscape to portrait orientation and back again.

The H4’s got a few strikes against it — those holding prongs, while keeping the iPad secure, don’t look very good — but all in all, it looks like a great solution for anyone who does a lot of typing or video watching on their iPad. $50 will get you one.

I’m waiting here like a kid at Christmas, pulling the curtains, hoping to see the UPS  Fed-Ex truck outside. Some of you guys on the east coast may have got yours by now. Let us know in the comments. And send us pictures; we’ll post them.

Just a friendly Cult of Mac reminder that if you haven’t already pre-ordered an iPad 3G, and if you aren’t already elbowing Greg Packer for elbow room at the front of the 5th Avenue store lines, Apple’s official retail stores will all be closed from 4pm to 5pm today to prepare the staff for the imminent launch of Apple’s mobile broadband capable tablet. 17:00:01 is the earliest you’re possibly going to snag one unless UPS Santa pays you a visit before then.

Here’s what we’re curious about: how many of you are intending on picking up an iPad 3G after work today? If so, please let us know how you get on in the comments. We’d also be interested if the intermittently available iPad WiFi is more readily available in the retail stores now that the 3G is available.

Anyway, that’s it: the last first-gen iPad release date. Except for us poor suckers in the rest of the world, that is, but hell… we don’t count.

[via 9to5Mac]

Although individuals have already demonstrated working hacks of Apple’s iPad, it seems like it’s taking them forever to actually release a working jailbreak… and if you’re an iPod Touch owner, it seems like it’s been even longer since the first working, untethered 3.1.3 jailbreak was demonstrated, only to never be released.

It looks now like everyone has something to look forward. According to the iPhone Dev Team’s blog, they intend on releasing an iPadjailbreak sometime soon after the iPad 3G goes on sale.

These grips made from recycled tire rubber in five different designs assure your iPad won’t slip. (Insert obligatory sanitary pad joke here).

They look cool —  throwing star design anyone? — and will make sure your device will stay firmly in hand, even in those awkward situations like the iPad puppy effect.

NinjaGrips cost $15 each and ship most places worldwide starting the first week of May.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyx7U7TH2bQ

This fantastic proof of concept video by the guys over at Magic Jungle Software demonstrates their forthcoming game, Chopper 2, being output from an iPad to a 42-inch HDTV, with an iPhone or iPod Touch used as the game’s controller.

It looks incredible, but perhaps more interesting is Distorted Loop’s take on the video, which is that this would be a fantastic direction for a relaunched Apple TV to take: an audio-visual, app-running console hooked up to your television that can be controlled by an iPhone, iPod Touch or even a “future low-cost touch sensitive remote control” that would ship in the box.

A product like that would not only finally realize the wasted potential of the Apple TV product line, but put Apple on track to compete with the likes of the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as furiously as the iPhone currently competes with the Nintendo DS.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg isn’t the only politician to use an iPad. Russian President (and Putin-wielded political hand puppet) Dimitry Medvedev was spotted using an iPad during a recent meeting of the State Council, the Council of the Arts and the Council for Science and Technology. Unlike Stoltenberg, though, Medvedev was quick to reveal his own Ludditical tendencies, claiming that he initially found the iPad “impossible to read” (perhaps he prefers e-paper) and only warmed up to it when he downloaded the beautiful Russian novel A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov… which, incidentally, you should definitely read in the Nabokov translation if you can find it.

[via TUAW]

If you want to cover your precious iPad with the LV logo, be prepared to shell out about two-thirds the cost of the device itself.

In stores next year, the Louis Vuitton case will come with a price tag of $366 compared to the $499 for the basic iPad.

Touted as the first designer iPad sleeve from a major fashion house, you have to wonder what’s taking the rest of the overpriced, logofied pack so long. By the time this one, and others, are on shelves there may be an iPad 2G already available.

Via Geeky Gadgets, GQ

Well, would-be iPad 3G owners. Your long, long wait is finally coming to an end. According to 9to5Mac, pre-orders of the iPad 3G are finally starting to ship, and should be in your hands by Friday. If you didn’t pre-order one, you may be able to snag an iPad 3G at an Apple Store if you swing by after 5PM.

Got your shipping confirmation? Brag about it to us poor suckers in the comments.

Update: Reader Chris Wanja says, “I see you pulled it from the 9to5Mac article. In the mass of the 130+ comments, I added to a lot of them. We… have come to the conclusion that the image is Photoshopped due to NO one else having a shipping confirmation via email or order status. Several people confirm with other blogs and forums that they have not yet shipped, but are “prepared for shipment”.

Seems like a rather pedestrian use of Photoshop, personally. Have any of our readers received shipping confirmation yet?

Confirming earlier rumors, the New York Times is reporting that Apple has purchased ARM design firm Intrinsity for an estimated $121 million.

Great News! You don’t have to wait to use your iPad as a MIDI device.

Jameson Proctor, fellow Brooklyn resident and newly established app developer, has brought us a fantastic iPad Midi Controller for $4.99.

MxNM LE, which stands for Mix N Match MIDI Limited Edition, offers 135 virtual buttons sliders and knobs for your programming pleasure and you’ll need to use the MxNM WiFi Server to connect your iPad to your sequencing software of choice. The next update will allow the user to add labels to each control. I can’t wait for an OSC release to give me my monome fix.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z00VCzoIVc

Apple’s own iPad dock gives an easy and handy way to use a physical keyboard with your tablet, but one annoyance is the official dock’s inability to allow you to type when the device is in a landscape position.

It’s slightly irritating, but the Book of Joe has an easy-to-follow instruction manual on how to dock your iPad in a landscape position.

Essentially, you prop up your iPad (in Joe’s case, with the official iPad case) and use an iPod cable extender to connect the iPad to the dock connector. It’s a lot more of a kludge than it has to be, and I imagine a bluetooth keyboard and a sixty-nine cent business card holder would be a better solution for the price. Still, if you’ve got this stuff lying around already, it’s not a bad hack… at least until a third-party accessory maker comes out with a dock that allows typing in both landscape and vertical orientations.

Need another reason to justify your purchase of a frivolous iPad? Pop Cap Games shows us just how valuable the iPad touchscreen surface is for gaming in a demo of Plants Vs. Zombies HD.

Apparently, the iPad can handle 11 simultaneous points of contact, which is perfect for the man with six fingers on his right hand. Or if you’re into playing games with friends and stuff, this makes for some great multiplayer action. Imagine 11-way air hockey, or 11-way Hungry Hungry Hippos. Which reminds me, when is the board game Crossfire coming to the App Store?

This is the cutest game demo video I have ever seen. It’s almost as cute as the trailer for Babies.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP6lIcScVh0&feature=player_embedded

A couple of Reuters reporters scoured electronics shops in Shanghai for an iPad clone until someone led them to a dark backroom on a fifth floor of one of the city’s many clone marts.

You can’t see a whole lot from the blurry pic, but they report that the counterfeit iPad sports three USB ports in what looks like a heavy-set, pumped-up iPhone. This isn’t the first iPad copycat to come out of the area, but this one looks more like the Apple device.

The price for the faux iPad is just slightly lower than the real deal 2,800 yuan ($410), compared to the iPad’s $499-$699 price. It runs a Windows OS.

Denver police arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with an iPad theft that also cost the victim part of his pinky.

20-year-old Brandon Darnell Smith was arrested early Saturday at a traffic stop.

“It’s bittersweet,” the victim, 59-year-old Bill Jordan, told local ABC affiliate 7NEWS. “The bitter part of it is there is nothing anybody can do to replace this. It is what it is.”

When Apple first revealed the $30 iPad Camera Connection Kit, which contains a little dongle that allows you to use a USB 2.0 cable to transfer photos from your camera to your iPad’s iPhoto library, a lot of people wondered if it might be used to connect other USB devices as well.

As it turns out, you can: you can use the Camera Connection Kit to hook up an audio headset and a USB keyboard.

Not terribly exciting, but as the Camera Connection Kits begin to be shipped, it might hint at more exciting USB interoperability to come. A game pad certainly would be nice.

In an age when voice and video from half a world away can be sucked up from the soup of electromagnetic radiation invisibly swirling around us, plugging in my iPhone to sync with iTunes makes me feel like a caveman. I’ve been waiting for an app that would allow me to wirelessly sync my iDevices for awhile, and now, it looks like it might be here: Wi-Fi Sync by Greg Hughes allows you to pair your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to your computer through WiFi, no wires required.

Here’s a interesting story about secrecy and making mistakes at Apple. The story is told by Woz, Apple employee number one (check out his hilarious shirt).

While Woz was waiting in line to buy the iPad last month, an Apple test engineer showed him a prototype iPad. It was just a few hours before the device went on sale. Woz, who is still an Apple employee, fired up the Numbers app. Little did he know, the unit was 3G test prototype, and was not to be shown or used outside of secure areas at the company HQ. Unfortunately, Woz’s playing with it must have somehow sent up a warning flag at Apple.

“… I can tell you that the test engineer who showed me an iPad after midnight, for 2 minutes, during the iPad launch was indeed fired. I opted to spend 2 minutes with Numbers on this iPad, trying some stunts I’d seen on Apple’s website demo video. I was not told that it was a 3G model and I had no way to know that. I was told that this engineer had to wait until midnight to show it outside of Apple’s secure area. And I’m an Apple employee who he was showing it to. My guess is that he was allowed to take the iPad outside of the secure area but still not supposed to show it.”

The test engineer was fired for betraying Apple’s ironclad rules on secrecy. The device was not to be shown to anybody — not even Woz. (And worse, Woz told Steve Jobs about seeing the iPad that night. Jobs himself said it was “no big deal.”)

On the other hand, Gray Powell, the Apple engineer who lost an iPhone 4G prototype at a bar, is still employed at Apple.

“Product secrecy is good for Apple and should be strictly enforced, but maybe 10% of niceness and 90% of strictness is OK too,” writes Woz.

It seems mistakes are forgiven, but betrayals are not.

Gizmodo: Steve Wozniak On Apple Security, Employee Termination, and Gray Powell

99 year old Virginia Campbell just got her first computer… and it’s the iPad.

Emphasizing Apple’s own “it just works” mantra, Virginia was quickly able to make sense of the iPad’s operating system and use Pages in landscape mode to write the following limerick:

To this technically-ninny it’s clear
In my compromised 100th year,
That to read and to write
Are again within sight
Of this Apple iPad Pioneer.

My own limericks tend to be smuttier and focus on a strange Venusian improbably named Michael Hunt, but I admire Virginia’s: at the very least, it’s probably the best and sweetest advertising Apple could possibly get.

The iPad may be too popular for its own good:  Apple seems to be imposing limits on how many you can buy.

When a hospital district wanted to buy 100 of them to equip medical staff, they ran into trouble:

Apple’s ordering system automatically canceled Volosin’s purchase, informing him that he could not order more than three.
“They were limiting people form ordering too many, which I thought was interesting,” he says. “They’re used to dealing with consumers and not bulk orders.”

Now, a medical student who endeavored to buy a bunch of iPads for his pals at the NeoGAF gaming forum, ran straight into “lifetime limit.”

With the iPad kinda bridging the chasm between iPhone and MacBook, it becomes increasingly likely a 70-page legal brief some lawyer’s been working on for months will be lost when junior accidentally flings the iPad into the pool while taking a turn a little too hot in Real Racing HD.

That’s where DriveSavers comes in. Located about a half hour north of San Francisco, these guys are experts at recovering data from hard drives and the NAND flash chips used in the iPhone — and the iPad. The only difference is the iPhone has one set of chips, while the iPad has two.

It’s not cheap, though — DriveSavers says the average bill for recovering data from an iPhone runs about a grand. Ouch. They will, however, provide a free evaluation on an iPad mailed to them, explaining what can be recovered and how much it’ll cost.

The lesson here? Back your stuff up. And maybe get junior a helmet; kid seems a little accident-prone.