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iFixit, perhaps the premier gadget tear-down shop on the web today, dissected photos Friday of a pre-production iPad provided by Apple to the FCC, which inexplicably leaked the photos somehow, despite Apple’s desire that they be kept under wraps until August.

With standard caveats about the photos being lower-resolution quality than those iFixit will publish Saturday during its own teardown of a commercially available unit, the company uncovered a few interesting tidbits shedding light on Apple’s suppliers, manufacturing processes and thinking behind the design of the highly anticipated device.

From the iFixit review of the FCC photos:

* It looks like there is a LOT of epoxy holding these chips down to the board. More than we’ve seen before— Apple is really serious about durability on this thing.

* Apple didn’t solder the battery! The iPad uses the same battery attachment system as the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

* Notably lacking from the RF/data cable is anything GPS related.

* Dual speakers provide stereo sound. Two small sealed channels direct sound toward three audio ports carved into the bottom edge of the iPad.

There’s more at the ongoing iFixit review, as well as plenty of info on the iPad hosted by the FCC. And of course, stay tuned for the deluge of information and opinion about Apple’s newest revolutionary device set to wash over the shores of Cyberia just a few hours from now.

More pics after the jump.

Back in December, we reported on the Mag+ prototype for an electronic magazine, developed by the R&D team at Bonnier with help from London design team BERG.

Today, Mag+ becomes reality with the release of Popular Science+, a version of the, um, popular science magazine that’s been built exclusively for iPad. And it looks amazing.

Here’s a video walk-through from BERG’s Jack Schulze:

Compare and contrast with the original video mockup from a few months ago:

The BERG team have done a great job of turning their concept into a real product. They’ve done something else, though: Mag+ is a template, a platform for e-magazine publishing. Having got this trial version of Popular Science out, Bonnier can apply the same technology to their other titles, as well as move it to other mobile platforms like Android.

A pair of alpha nerds, BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow and Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani, have just published strong anti-iPad pieces. Neither is buying the iPad, for different reasons.

Doctorow is firmly against the iPad because it’s too commercial and locked down. He wants an open device he can hack. And Trapani thinks the Mark II iPad will be so much better than the first, only an idiot is will buy the first version:

Cory Doctorow (BoingBoing): Doctorow has a host of reasons he’s not buying the iPad, among them: it’s the second coming of the CD-ROM “revolution,” you can’t share media with others, the device itself is glued closed and it hastens the Wal-Martization of software. “… there’s also a palpable contempt for the owner. I believe — really believe — in the stirring words of the Maker Manifesto: if you can’t open it, you don’t own it.”

Gina Trapani (Lifehacker): Trapani predicts the price will halve in short order, and that next year’s model will be much better. “First-generation Apple products are for suckers. Only lemmings with no self-control and excessive disposable income buy first generation Apple products, especially in a new gadget category.”

CoM’s take: I don’t change the oil in my truck and I don’t want to change the batteries in an iPad. It’s open where it counts: access to the web. And I bought the first iPhone, the first iPod, the first Airport and plenty of first-generation Macs. Haven’t regretted buying any of them (except the first Time Capsule, which just died).

Doctorow has a Sad Mac tattoo, btw.

It’s April 3rd weekend, which means a good number of you will be trying out some of the first iPad games to hit the App Store. I, living in Germany, am not be so lucky: my own iPad won’t be delivered until some still unknown date in the farther-flung days of April. Instead, I’m still stuck gaming on my iPhone, but luckily, I’ve got one of the best and hardest-core games on the App Store to entertain me this weekend: Sword of Fargoal.

If you missed Stephen Colbert on the telly last night, here he is showing off his iPad. He opens the show holding the iPad as he sits at his desk. “Thank you for joining US,” he says, as he winks at his new iPad and then puts it away. Then he says: “Of course, the big story for tonight is — I have an iPad.”

Big smug smile.

And yeah, Comedy Central isn’t iPad-friendly. It’s conspicuously absent from Apple’s list of ‘iPad ready” websites.

A day before Apple officially launches sales of the iPad, a new report predicts the Cupertino, Calif. company could sell 7 million of the tablet devices in 2010 and see demand double and triple over the next two years. Although the 7 million figure is just the latest to surpass Wall Street expectations, researchers Friday termed the number “conservative.”

The researchers at iSuppli expect 14.4 million iPads will sell in 2011 and 20.1 million in 2012. Although initial sales will again be driven by first-adopters, researchers see future demand propelled by a growing base of applications, greater features and potentially lower prices.

If you need to write to a mounted volume over SMB, you might want to hold off on updating to OS X 10.6.3 if you haven’t done so already: Apple support forum users are reporting major problems in multiple threads that SMB is borked.

Reader Eric Dube writes:

[T]here seems to be a systemic issue with the latest 10.6.3 update from Apple breaking write access to SMB shares for many users. The problem occurs when you try to copy a file with extended file attributes to the SMB share – files without extended attributes can be copied. I can honestly say the problem breaks connectivity to every one of my SMB shares that I’ve tried and need to access on a daily basis. So far there’s no word from Apple (numerous people including myself have reported the issue though) or any known workaround that works (other than copying the files from a terminal prompt instead of the finder.)…

At this point, I’m already considering backing out the update and going back to 10.6.2 since that works just fine. It appears to be a wide-spread problem, so it might be worth looking into to warn users about.

It certainly seems to be a wide-spread issue, although not one that affects me personally. Have any of you guys noticed this problem since updating to 10.6.3? Let us know in the comments, especially if you found a solution that has worked for you in getting around the issue.

Apple has released its iBooks application for download, ahead of Saturday’s official launch of the Cupertino, Calif. company’s iPad tablet device. The application, which allows iPad users to read e-books as well as purchase titles from the iBookstore, can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.

To get iPad owners started, Apple will include the children’s favorite Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne.

Her at CoM, we’ve sent trackback hugs to our good friend Richard Gutjahr before for his fine, funny Apple Tablet inspired mock movie poster Photoshops. But as clever as Richard’s last round of mock-up posters were, the iPad still hadn’t been officially announced, and he didn’t even know what the Apple tablet was going to look like yet. His latest posters are all the funnier for being tablet accurate.

We’ve got a couple more after the jump, but be sure to hit up Richard’s site for the whole collection.

Could the iPad be the best thing to happen to Amazon? Although a debate has raged over what impact Apple’s tablet device could have on the Seattle-based e-book leader, Amazon could actually benefit from the iPad, a Friday report suggests. Despite a wide-held opinion that the iPad is a more flexible platform, Amazon could sell more e-books to iPad owners than Apple.

“If you’re an iPad buyer, chances are about 90 percent that you’re also a book buyer on Amazon,” Forrester analyst James McQuivey told the Wall Street Journal. Unlike Apple’s launch of the iPod or iPhone, where the Cupertino, Calif. company started with iTunes and the App Store pre-installed, iPad buyers can choose whether to install Apple’s iBooks or another e-book app, such as Amazon’s Kindle app.

[polldaddy poll=”2995715″] When the much-awaited Apple tablet device was christened the iPad in January, many people hated the name.

CoM readers were underwhelmed by the choice of iPad, 51% of the 1,380 readers who answered our poll on Jan. 27 gave the moniker a “meh” while just 17% said the name “rocks.”

For English speakers, the sanitary product association was immediate and launched a thousand jokes — including some printed for posterity on underwear,  for many non-English speakers, it was just one awkward vowel away from iPod.

Has time — and the fact that the device is almost in stores — made any difference?

Let us know in the comments.

It’s possible to hack UPS tracking numbers to monitor other people’s iPad orders, consultant Stephen Foskett has discovered.

If you have a genuine iPad tracking number, you change the last two digits to get valid tracking numbers for other people’s iPad orders. I just checked, and I’m glad to see I’m not the only one with an iPad on a slow plane from China.

Here’s how the UPS tracking number breaks down, according to Foskett:

… the standard UPS format is “1ZAAAAAATTIIIIIPPC”, where AAAAAA is the account, TT is the service type, IIIII is the invoice, PP is the package, and C is the check digit. These numbers are not encrypted or at all random, and CodeProject has a complete decoding method.

To hack the tracking number, you increase the last number by one (the checksum), while decreasing the penultimate number by one (this is the last digit of the package number).

So if your package number ends in “63,” you can substitute “54,” “45,” “36,” “27,” and “18” to get valid tracking numbers for five more packages.

The hack works — I just tried it. I can now follow iPad packages going to Manchester Center, VT; Inverness, IL; Waverly, MN; Bridgewater, NJ; and Saint Louis, MO.

To make sure the packages are iPads, check the origin location (Shenzhen, CN) and weight (1.4Kgs).

Foskett suggests the hack could be exploited by analysts trying to figure out how many iPads Apple shipped this week. He thinks it could also reveal how many people are ordering two iPads, and the distribution of customers around the country.

UPS Tracking Hack Can Reveal iPad Orders and Destinations

UPS is gearing up for a massive, “all hands” iPad delivery day on Saturday. UPS says ALL iPads will be delivered en masse on Saturday except to customers in very remote locations.

“We’ve got all hands on deck for a huge wave of Sat. deliveries,” says MikeAtUPS, who is providing UPS customer service via Twitter. “Unless you’re in a very remote area, your iPad’ll arrive on Sat.”

Thanks to UPS’s flip-flopping tracking system, the shipping company is being inundated with iPad customers asking where their packages are.

On Tuesday, UPS’s tracking system appeared to show that many iPads had left China and were in Louisville, KY, where UPS has a giant international shipping center. However, a few hours later references to Louisville were removed and iPad packages were listed as still being in China. (Some CoM readers with knowledge of UPS’s system suggested that references to Louville were some kind of internal UPS admin message).

It now appears that many iPads left China at 4.30 AM last night (April 2 local time) — just two days before iPad launch day.

MikeAtUPS has been busy answering queries from customers asking where their iPads are.

“The iPads will all be delivered on Saturday, iPad Launch Day,” is the same reply he’s been giving.

One customer said he was “freaking” because he didn’t know where his iPad was. “There’s no need to freak,” MikeAtUPS told him. “Everything is going according to plan.”

He’s also been asked several times if UPS can deliver iPads early. “Afraid not,” he says. “By Apple’s decree, they’ll all be delivered on Saturday, Launch Day!”

UPDATE: Another UPS customer service rep on Twitter, ThomasAtUPS, says iPad launch day is a “major operation for UPS.”

“The iPad deliveries are a major operation for UPS,” says ThomasAtUPS. “While we can’t say much now, we might later. I’d be interested. :)”

The first round of iPad apps are live on the App Store. There’s already a wide selection of apps, from NetNewsWire for iPad to AOL’s AIM.

But in a world accustomed to $0.99 apps, there might be some sticker shock.

Prices of iPad apps seem to be $3.99 and up. There’s a handful of fre apps, but not many.

Wonder how long early-adopter pricing will hold up before there’s the inevitable race to the bottom?

Here’s the full listing of iPad apps.

“Next week! That’s like the worst thing you could say to an early adopter!”

Thanks, Hulu. Of course, the only people who won’t be able to watch are those lucky bastards who already have an iPad…

Two men charged in federal court with planting credit card skimmers at gas stations used an iPhone to plan the crime.

The Hummer-driving, iPhone toting pair hit eight gas stations in central Utah before an attendant noticed the devices. He provided security cam footage of Robert Fichidzhyan, 27, and Levon Karamyan, 55, both of California, installing skimmers.

They were busted after police searched their car, a damaged white Hummer H2, and found keys to open the skimming devices and an iPhone with a map of Richfield with gas stations marked on it. Reports didn’t mention whether it was a map or a gas-station finder app.

I may hate April Fool’s Day, but I can still appreciate a good gag product when I see one, like this iPhone-to-iPad Converter. It’s like a microfilm reader for your iPhone: Just slap your iPhone in, let the display upscaler do its thing and you’ve got an iPad for just a fraction of the price suckers like Leander are paying for it!

[via Gizmodo]

The number of people planning to buy an Android-based phone in the next 90 days jumped to 30 percent in March, nine points higher than the December survey conducted by ChangeWave. First-adopters interested in buying an iPhone over the next three months hit 29 percent, inching up just a single point since December. The researchers Wednesday described the results as a “monster wave of demand for Android OS phones.”

While a 9 point increase doesn’t seem like a “monster wave of demand,” compared to six months ago, it is a five-fold jump, the researchers said.

Remember this grossy? The greasy hair, the unshaped moustache adorned with old bits of scrambled egg and dollops of congealed bean juice, the belly as super-inflated as the abdominal cavity of some male pregnancy fetishist’s dream hunk? His name’s Greg Packer, and in 2007 he was the first guy in line outside of Apple’s Fifth Avenue Store, waiting for the iPhone.

Camping out then made a modicum of sense, since Apple needed to activate your iPhone in store back in 2007… but here he is again, camped out three days ahead of time to grab an iPad and first in line, despite the fact that you’ve been able to pre-order an iPad either for delivery or store since March 12th. In other words, there’s no real reason to stand in line three days ahead of time this time around if you had the foresight to pre-order.

We’re all for honest enthusiasm and anticipation of Apple products here at CoM, but on the other hand, we’re also proponents of hygeniene, common sense and a facsimile of a life. This guy was christened the “iLoser” back in 2007, and he really seems intent on defending the title three years later. Best of luck to him: my guess is there won’t be much competition.

Mostly because every oom in my house right down to the bathroom contains a pair of speakers hooked up to an Airport Express, the true killer app on the iPhone and iPod Touch is Apple’s official Remote app, which allows you to control and stream your iTunes library with painless ease.

I always assumed that the Remote App would work perfectly well on the iPad, but just in case it was in doubt, iTunes 9.1’s preference panel spills Remote on the iPad as a fact. Whether Remote will be a universal app, or get an HD overhaul is still unknown, but since I expect my iPad to pretty much live on my coffee table as an e-reader, casual browsing machine and photo album, I’m still pretty excited.

Although only in the prototype phase right now, these wooden iPad cases Substrata look gorgeous.

Coming in flavors of dead tree flesh including walnut, zebrano, wenge, mahogany and maple, and shipping with both hinged and sliding lids, the Substrata iPad cases (replete with microsuede lining to prevent scratches) should be available in June for an unknown but probably fairly expensive price.

See the hinged lid prototype after the fold.

Before it even hits stores, several US colleges have pledged to give iPads to students along with their orientation kits.

iRush schools include Seton Hill in Pennslyvania, Northwest Tech in Kansas and George Fox University in Oregon, where freshmen have been handed personal computers along with class schedules for the last 20 years.

The iPod Touch has been making in roads in higher education since its 2007 release, but this is the first time a device has been promised to students before it is even on the market.

Not all iPad school programs are created equal. Students at George Fox can choose between the iPad and a MacBook Pro, students at Seton get both an iPad and a MacBook Pro, for those at Northwest Tech, iPads will replace the iPod Touch devices students were previously given.

While hailing how much the devices can free up weighty backpacks or “augment the learning experience,” some school officials admit they don’t know yet how much help an iPad will be for trig or anthropology homework.

“The trend in higher education computing is this concept of mobility, and this fits right in,” Greg Smith,  the university’s chief information officer, said in a press release. “At the same time, we realize there are a number of uncertainties. Will students struggle with a virtual keyboard? Can the iPad do everything students need it to do when it comes to their college education? These are the kinds of questions we really won’t know the answer to until we get started.”

For about six months now, Starbucks has been testing a system in about a dozen Seattle and Silicon Valley stores that turns the iPhone into a virtual wallet, letting customers pay for lattes and the like with an app that displays a barcode read by a specialized reader at the counter.

But yesterday, Starbucks said the trick will expand to 1,000 Starbucks shops inside Target locations. Which is a little odd, considering Target’s demographic (yes, I’m suggesting a large chuck of Target shoppers may not even know what an iPhone is — despite the fact Target hawks Apple stuff — let alone be aware that, yes, there’s an app for that. In fact, the shift manager at my local Starbucks hadn’t even heard of the program).

To mark it two-year anniversary, the Apple-centered iFund doubled in size to $200 million. Highlighting the iFund’s addition of iPad investments, John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers waxed poetically: The tablet device “feels like you’re touching the future.”

Seven iFunded game developers: ng:moco (makers of Flick Fishing, Castlecraft, NBA Hotshot, Charadium, We Rule, GoldFinger and WarpGate), Pinger (Star Smash and Doodle Buddy), GOGII and Shazam will be avaailable when the iPad launches April 3.

Update: Picture me boring a hole through my throbbing temples with my fingertips. PC World has just confirmed Netflix for the iPad. The pictures of the app are even hosted on Apple’s servers and the app is listed on AppShopper, so short of a linkable announcement, this is as official as it gets. The Netflix app will be free to download, but you’ll need a Netflix subscription to stream video, which starts at $8.99 a month.

In other words, due to the web of lies and trickery bloggers weave on April Fool’s Day, I’ve been punk’d by real news. I hate this day so much. See the original (discredited) post positing this was in all probability a prank below.