Well folks, this settles it: cats are Mac, and dogs are PC. Take a look at the little Corgi alarm going off in the video from Tested.com above for the incontrovertible truth.
I suppose this rules out an iPad at Buckingham Palace.
[via TUAW, Tested.com]
While the iPad can’t print out-of-the-box, there’s a veritable plethora (and I swear to never use that word again) of iPad printing options up at your local App Store, and what follows is an in-exhaustive sampling. We haven’t tried any of these yet, but we’re hoping at least one of them will allow us to print a simple shopping list so we don’t have to whip out the iPad at Safeway.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40&feature=player_embedded
If you can bear to watch a cat dragging its claws across an iPad’s screen, here’s some video of a pussy playing piano and with some virtual “yarn.” Sure to be the start of a blockbuster pussy-‘n’-iPads meme.
Rally Up, the newish location based social networking app, released an update for iPad Thursday that immediately puts the upstart application ahead of the game for people who want to keep track of and interact with their friends on the iPad.
Taking full advantage of the iPad’s increased real estate, Rally Up’s unique map-based canvas gives the app a level of functionality and makes it interesting in ways that market leaders Foursquare and Gowalla have yet to achieve. By designing the app to take advantage of iPad’s support for popping info out and overlaying things on the same screen, Rally Up manages to let its users interact with the app in fewer taps and screen changes, allowing for more time to browse and interact with the content being constantly generated by users’ friends.
Because iPad usage patterns are likely to skew towards more time spent lingering over applications than the quick, get-in-and-get-out experience many desire from the iPhone, Rally Up’s focus on content — and the way it presents all of a user’s friends and their feeds in a single, map-based global view — makes using it a decidedly more immersive experience than other social networking apps can so far provide.
“The iPad really changes the experience of a [location based social app],” said Rally Up founder Sol Lipman. “It becomes less of a push app and more of a pull app, in my opinion. You want to sit and explore, not just wait until your friend tells you what they’re up to.”
A lot of bytes and ink have been spent on whether the iPad is good for anything but games or gently ushering your computer-phobic granny into the digital age.
Proof the device is good enough for real business, Norway’s prime minister Jens Stoltenberg reportedly ran his country from an iPad while stuck at the airport in New York yesterday.
While Stoltenberg was grounded due to volcanic eruptions in Iceland, his staff thought it best to let citizens know he was still busy with state affairs, sans tie and what looks to be a fairly regular airport lounge, by updating the state Flickr account with a photo titled “The Prime Minister is Working At the Airport.”
Even though everyday Norwegians won’t be able to buy an iPad in stores for at least another month, it’s nice to see the PM is an early adopter.
Via Flickr
The 3G version of the iPad will be released internationally in May, according to emails purported to come from Steve Jobs, CEO of the Cupertino, Calif. company.
In response to one developer’s email about whether both U.S. and International 3G iPads would be delayed until the end of April, Jobs succinctly answered “yes.” In another email, Jobs actually apologized to an international user about the delay for shipping both the WiFi and 3G versions of the tablet device.: “Both models will be released at the end of May. Sorry for the delay,” Jobs reportedly replied.
Israel has banned all iPad imports — yes, that means even bringing one on business or vacation — over concerns that higher-powered wireless receivers and transmitters in the device may disrupt national networks.
The iPad will be device non grata in Israel until authorities certify that the computers comply with local standards. About 10 unlucky iPad owners have had the devices confiscated so far. Visitors see their devices held in custody — racking up fines — until they depart the country.
“If you operate equipment in a frequency band which is different from the others that operate on that frequency band, then there will be interference,” Nati Schubert, a senior deputy director for the Communications Ministry told AP. “We don’t care where people buy their equipment … but without regulation, you would have chaos.”
“We (are) working on integrating this technology into our latest apps,” says the Form Group.
Reader @Trott asks if this actually works. I just tried it out. Here’s the result:
It’s a sure thing that the iPad will get a camera in its second generation. After all, there’s already an empty, iSight-shaped slot in the iPad’s frame, and it’s pretty much a sure thing that both the next iPhone and iPod Touch will have a camera. It would be absurd if the iPad didn’t get one soon as well.
Apple must be thinking the same thing. Over at their official site, Apple has posted an employment opportunity for a performance QA engineer to work on still and video capture in the iPad Media department.
Leander seems to think the iPad Keyboard Dock is a no-duh-brainer for real iPad typing, but at $69.00, it’s a luxury accessory when most of us already have Apple’s own bluetooth aluminum chiclet keyboard on our desks (in my case, collecting tobacco detritus).
After all, if you already have a keyboard that will work with the iPad, the keyboard dock’s really just a stand… and New York Times’ Multimedia Editor Andrew Devigal found out that the cheapest stand solution out there for the iPad isn’t 69 dollars, but 69 cents: namely, a business card holder from Office Depot.
Of course, the dock also charges and syncs your iPad, so if you want to go with this solution you’ll need to resign yourself to losing the ability to type on the iPad when its in a vertical position when the syncing cable is attached. (Edit: No, you won’t! As Bryan points out in the comments, you can just turn your iPad upside down and it’ll automatically re-orient itself. D’oh!) You’ll also sacrifice some of the function keys’. Still, who said frugality never meant some sacrifices?
I think I speak for many Europeans when I say that Apple’s promise of a late April international iPad launch elicited a small incredulous groan. Coming just a few weeks after the US April 3rd ship date made it appear like Apple’s international launch date was flexible according to the supply demands of US consumers. With the iPad likely to be a smash success just based on Apple’s previous iDevice home runs, I didn’t put a lot of stock in Apple’s late April promise, no matter how earnestly they seemed to mean it. The US market would come first.
Looks like I was right to be cautious: Apple has sent out a press release this morning explaining that because of strong domestic sales of the iPad, they are delaying international delivery by a month to late May.
The weirdest thing about using Apple’s iPad Keyboard Dock is that you are constantly reaching for a mouse — a mouse that isn’t there, of course. The iPad doesn’t support mice. Instead, you should be tapping and swiping the screen.
Using the keyboard to work with the iPad takes you out of the multitouch mode and puts you back in mouse/keyboard mode. And while you can use the keyboard in a limited way to navigate the iPad, you can’t use many of the desktop shortcuts you’ve learned over the years, like Command-Tab to switch apps.
So using an iPad with a keyboard takes a little getting used to, but the $69 iPad Keyboard Dock is a very handy accessory, with a couple of caveats.
This is Iggy. Along with this cat, Iggy is the first in a new generation of iLolcats. They will appear on YouTube in ever increasing numbers, playing with their owners iPads until somebody makes an app called CatToy or CatNip or iNip or PadCat or something.
Wait, I typed that as a joke, then searched the App Store. There are already several cat toy apps. Whatever happened to balls of string?
This cat, on the other hand, totally fails to get it.
Earlier today, we mentioned how the iPhone’s iPod Out feature will make it safer to play DJ while driving. But SoundMan Car Audio have taken it one step further by building a custom dash that allows an iPad become the centerpiece.
The iPad is a total babe magnet, writer Jim Colgan has discovered.
Colgan took his new iPad on the streets of New York and got so much attention, he says it’s better than borrowing a puppy to talk to girls.
“If you’re looking for a dating aid, leave your friend’s dog alone and borrow an iPad,” he says.
In case you doubted that an iPad jailbreak was imminent, this gorgeous little image posted by hacker extraordinaire George Hotz should prove the point: Cydia running on the iPad. Now stop being coy and give us a hint at a release date already, George!
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gew68Qj5kxw
Atomic Antelope’s Alice in Wonderland app for the iPad is certainly plenty frabjous — and makes a strange case for the iPad as the twenty-first century’s digital successor to the pop-up book — but what I really want to see is how the iPad changes the reading game when it comes to drier books.
As beautiful as this adaptation of Alice in Wonderland is, it’s also an easy approach. But how will people use the iPad’s capability to expand upon the text of a book like Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan or Nabokov’s Ada, or Adror, or Eco’s The Name of the Rose, or other less playful and anarchic works? I can’t wait to see.
The evidence continues to mount that the next iPhone, iPad or both will support video conferencing. Just a few days after the iChatAgent process was found running under iPhone OS in the 4.0 Beta… and now 9to5Mac has unearthed the motherload of all video chat references.
According to Mark Gurman, “We’ve found references to moderators, chat rooms, encrypted video conferences and other features which could be even be used by developers in the future to add video chat to gaming applications, perhaps with ties to Gamecenter.”
A built-in video chat API for game developers to use in their apps is exciting enough, but 9to5Mac have also found that Apple is testing iPhone video conferencing services and have opened four servers (one external, three internal) to test out the feature.
Finally? According to 9to5Mac’s sources, iPads and iPod Touches are going to get video in the fall, simultaneous with the next iPhone release. And you thought you’d have a year before you had to upgrade your iPad.
Who knows how the iPad will ultimately be used? Certainly no one at this early date.
Is it merely an ebook reader, or is it a gaming device? Could it be an honest-to-goodness tool for business?
Like so many things, it all depends on your expectations.
It’s well known by now that early impressions of the iPad find it pooh-pooed by the technorati and generally lauded by the great unwashed as a fantastical window (if you’ll excuse the pun) into the future of mobile computing.
The highly regarded founder of Daily Kos, one of the Internet’s most widely read blogs, weighed in Sunday with a wide-ranging, detailed review of Apple’s latest creation and pronounced the iPad a gadget that “scored big as … a device that makes my life easier,” calling it “better than a laptop.”
Update: This article is not intended for the Irony challenged.
So I’m a hypocrite. After swearing that there was no way I’d ever own a tablet with a phone operating system, I broke down and got one. At this price point, I don’t see how I couldn’t. The wife couldn’t be happier, one needs just look at my bathroom above to see why. Gone are the endless stacks of magazines and books. Gone, is the image of her husband stuck behind his desk, nose in the computer (now, I’m on the couch, nose in the iPad, but at least being in the same room gives the impression of being engaged with the family).
Follow me after the jump for my impressions after week one.
The introduction of the iPad is a clarion call for major music labels to finally recognize the future of the music industry and embrace the development of applications made to run on Apple’s new device, according to a feature article in the latest issue of Billboard Magazine, which officially hits news stands Saturday.
Once the province of industry insiders, filled with reams of stats and reportage on music industry minutiae, behind-the-scenes comings and goings and gossip, Billboard is now a smart and snappy magazine with its finger on the pulse of the larger forces at work in the music industry, with articles seemingly targeting a more general audience while remaining the go-to source for the numbers that drive the industry.
The cover of the current issue promises a look at The Next Killer Apps, though what the article inside actually suggests is that – generally – the next killer apps on the iPad are going to be music-related offerings tied to artist branding that will give consumers something more than the aural experience provided by CDs and music downloads, and will provide the industry new realms of revenue producing products that go well beyond the marketing value of the web content and promotional aspirations of most mobile offerings produced to date.
You’ve probably got your own preferred method of propping your iPad up on your work desk, whether that’s a cheap Staples’ laptop stand or a could of clip binders stuck in an ancient block of verdantly fecund cheddar (my preferred method). These solutions are for the plebs. Meet the Joule.
The Joule is simple: it’s a CNC-machined cylinder of polished aluminum with a velvet lined slot in which your iPad’s bottom lip can be ensconced, as well as a cut-out for your iPad’s home button and speaker. The Joule stays upright thanks to a metal rod on the back which can be repositioned magnetically for extremely fluid control of angle adjustment.
It’s a gorgeous stand that wouldn’t look out of place on the desk of Ive himself, but the price, alas, is horrible: $130.
[via Gadget Lab
With typical modesty and restraint, Steve Jobs today downplayed the iPad hype. Pouring cold water on some of the hyperbole pundits have lavished on the device, he said:
“We think this is a profound gamechanger. We think when people look back some number of years from now, they’ll see this as a major event in personal computation devices.”
He was responding to a question about being surprised by the initial reaction. Here’s what he said in full:
OPINION: Steve Jobs saved the most important part of his iPhone 4.0 announcement today till last — the new in-app advertising system, called iAds.
The iAds system is important because it allows the App Store to create a completely self-sustaining app economy that is sealed off from the wider Web.
Tech guru Tim O’Reilly says the App Store is already becoming a rival to the web itself. The App Store, he says, is “the first real rival to the Web as today’s dominant consumer application platform.” Consumers will have no need to visit the web on their iPhones and iPads if they get everything they need from apps, which is bad news for companies like Google.
“This is a new phenomenon,” Jobs said about apps at today’s presentation. This is the first time this kind of thing has ever existed. We never had that on the desktop, so search was the only way to find a lot of things.”
The App Store economy is already pretty well developed. There is the app purchase mechanism itself through iTunes, and in-app purchases, which allow consumers to buy stuff from inside apps themselves. But there was a big hole: advertising. Ads are already a big part of the app economy, but clicking on them typically takes consumers out of the app and into the browser, an experience Steve Jobs describes as jolting.
But now Apple has built a sophisticated ad-serving mechaninsm right into the iPhone (and iPad, natch), which will make the App ecosystem like AOL in the early days — a walled garden. And one that has it’s own economy: in-app purchases, and now in-app advertising. There will be no need to go to the wider web anymore — and that cuts out Google.
“What’s happening is that people are spending a lot of time in apps,” Jobs said today. “They’re using apps to get to data on the internet, rather than a generalized search.”
No wonder Apple and Google are at war. Google swooped in a bought AdMob just to keep it out of Apple’s hands (so Apple snapped up Quattro instead). Of course, Google isn’t on the ropes yet. Android is Google’s attempt to keep it relevant in mobile, and so far it’s holding its own against the iPhone.
But if early numbers are any indication, the iPad is going to be an iPhone-sized hit. Combine the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, and that’s a lot of mobile devices in Apple’s walled garden.
The iPhone’s stripped down version of Safari lacks many of the features of its more well-endowed OSX brother — for instance, Mobile Safari won’t do tabs, or let users make in-page word searches. And iPad’s Mobile Safari won’t perform those tricks either.
A couple of months ago, we reviewed Vais Salikhov’s Find In Page, a $1 app that patched the latter hole, making in page searches possible on the iPhone. Version 2.0 was just released yesterday, making it fully compatible with the iPad.
Find In Page is probably even more of a must-have item on the iPad than it is on the iPhone, since the iPad is such a surf-board that Safari will probably get used much more heavily than on the iPhone. Although, maybe a few hours worth of patience are in order here — it’s entirely possible the tweaks revealed within the next few hours or so might contain this same little fix.