Check out this totally pro video of the iPad 2 launch in Munich, Germany. It was shot, edited and uploaded entirely on an iPad 2 using iMovie. The entire process took less than a hour. It’s even in HD (720p).

It was shot by journalist Richard Gutjahr. Gutjahr made headlines himself last year as the first guy in line for the original iPad at Apple’s 5th Ave. Store in New York. Gutjahr bumped pro-line sitter Greg Packer.

It’s pretty amazing that such a professional video was prepared and published in less than an hour. Could never do it that quickly with a camcorder/MacBook/Aircard combo.

Here’s the finished product:

Here are some pictures and an explanation of the equipment and methods (in German).

The first “real” competition to the original iPad was the 7-inch Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab, and it looks like the first “real” competition to the iPad 2 will be the Galaxy Tab 10.1, a Honeycomb tablet boasting a 10.1-inch, 1280×800 display, a 1GHz dual-core CPU, dual-antenna WiFi, a 3MP back-facing camera and a 2MP webcam that starts at prices of just $499… all in a form factor that Samsung claims is both thinner and lighter than the iPad 2.

Well, except it turns out that Samsung’s claims about a thinner iPad 2? They appear to not be true.

Fritz Nelson of InformationWeek ended up getting a couple comparison shots between the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad 2, and found that contrary to Samsung’s claims, the Galaxy Tab was still slightly thicker.

It’s possible that the unit on display was a prototype, so maybe the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is thinner than the iPad 2. But my guess is it’s all a marketing lie, considering the fact that Samsung’s also been busted for hiring actors to pretend to be fans of the Galaxy Tab.

Who really cares? Honestly, if buying a tablet with Android installed on it isn’t going to dissuade you — and it should, given the execrable history of past Android devices being updated to later, more feature-rich versions of the OS by their manufacturers — a matter of a couple millimeters and a couple of actors isn’t going to cure you of your delusions either.

TechCrunch is reporting that Apple will release the first Gold Master release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion sometime in the near future.

It’s an interesting rumor. Although they are classifying the release as “GM1,” Apple traditionally releases Gold Masters only a few weeks before the actual software ships. If Lion is already at Gold Master status, barring any huge problems, Apple must be fairly convinced that Lion is fully baked.

Lion is slated for a Summer release date, but if Apple does release even the initial Gold Master in the next month, it bodes well for Lion debuting very early in summer… and very possibly late spring.

With any other company, you’d chalk this up to coincidence, but with Apple, you suspect meaning: Swedish designer Mattias Östergren noticed that the iPhone 4 fits exactly inside the dent below the trackpad in the MacBook Air that allows the ultraportable laptop to be easily opened.

At the very least, it shows what the base unit of reference for Apple’s designs are these days: everything’s measured in terms of iPhones.

By now, seems to be pretty well accepted that texting while driving is even more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. SuperTooth, a French company behind a variety of Bluetooth gadgets, released a version of their hands-free Bluetooth speakerphone earlier this week at the CTIA mobile conference in Florida.

The SuperTooth HD is a more powerful version of the company’s other models, like the SuperTooth Voice, and features two speakers outputting a relatively powerful a 5 watts through a 5.4 watt amplifier (which SuperTooth says is three times as powerful as any other speakerphone out there). Pair that with dual mics, and you’ve got what sounds like a fairly formidable hands-free package.

The HD also has the same voice-control and text-to-speech features as some of the company’s earlier offerings, like answering calls, retrieving voicemail and composing Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and text messages. The SuperTooth HD will be available next month for $129.

Timing for me was good this afternoon. I went to sync my iPad 2 on my Mac and iTunes told me that an iOS update was available for it. Yes indeed and much to my surprise — iOS 4.3.1 (8G4) is out.

The latest firmware offers the following improvements and fixes:

• Fixes an occasional graphics glitch on iPod touch (4th generation)
• Resolves bugs related to activating and connecting to some cellular networks
• Fixes image flicker when using Apple Digital AV Adapter with some TVs
• Resolves an issue authenticating with some enterprise web services

The update supports: iPhone 4 (GSM model only), iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPad 2, and iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation). The update isn’t available of Verizon iPhone 4 users who remain on iOS 4.2.6.

There isn’t any mention of a fix for battery woes encountered by users across practically all iOS devices, but I hope that it addresses that problem as well.

Information about security fixes in this update can be found in this Apple knowledge base document.

Please share your experiences with the update after you’ve installed it by leaving a comment.

[via iTunes]

We close out another week with three hardware deals in the spotlight. First up is a 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad for $529. Next is a number of Mac mini desktop machines, starting at $599 for a 2.4GHz Core 2 model. Finally, there is a 1.4GHz 12-inch MacBook Air for $930.

Along the way, we’ll also check out more MacBook Pros, a MacBook Dual Core, as well as a Mac Pro Xeon workstation. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRo1ZgXVcus&feature=player_embedded

The iPad 2 hits stores today in 25 countries — from Australia to Canada — and Apple fans around the world are lining up just like their U.S. counterparts for the latest edition of the device.

In Sydney, Australia, the line stretched around the block. In Liverpool, England about 20 people started camping out last night to get ready for the 5 p.m. launch today. Some are second-time buyers.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the Smart Cover, he put it forward as a solution to the status quo, where you have this gorgeous device and yet the only way to protect it was to sheathe it on all sides. The resulting cover is a nifty gadget in its own right, but it’s not exactly very protective: while it’ll guard the screen from being scratched in your bag, it won’t cushion your iPad 2 if it falls, and it won’t protect the back.

XGear’s Smart Cover Enhancer probably won’t protect your iPad 2 from much of a fall, but it will at least save the back of your iPad 2 from a gouging while working with your existing Smart Cover.

Calling the online petition signed by over 150,000 people a “calculated smear campaign,” by gay activists to remove the Exodus International app, the president of the Christian organization responded to Apple’s decision to pull it from the iTunes store.

Here’s an excerpt of what Exodus President Alan Chambers has to say about Apple’s decision:

Here is my point.  It is becoming apparently clear that there is no room in this culture for diversity of thought or opinion. It goes beyond Apple having the right to discriminate. It is the fact that simply offering someone support as THEY CHOOSE to live their life through the filter of their faith rather than their sexuality is now considered not only offensive, but also dangerous.  People with biblical convictions are now being labeled bigoted and homophobic for simply upholding someone’s right to self-determine how they want to live their lives.  It’s astounding.

Do you think this decision is going to come back and bite Apple in the you-know-what?

Via Exodus International

Google has closed its new ‘open’ Android 3.0 ‘Honeycomb’ software to outsiders, explaining it doesn’t want the mobile OS designed for tablets on smartphones. “We have no idea if it will even work on phones,” Google’s Andy Rubin tells BusinessWeek.

While Google is often seen as the direct rival to Apple’s iPad 2, the new Android software will also compete with RIM’s PlayBook and HP’s webOS. Honeycomb is already part of Motorola’s Xoom and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. Rubin says Android 3 will be closed to outside developers for “the foreseeable future.”

When Apple first debuted the Smart Cover, we knew we’d see third-party copy cats, but who knew that the first one to be available for order would be so beautiful: Minot’s wooden iPad 2 cover.

Calm your fears about whether the disaster in Japan could also strike your long-awaited iPad 2. If anything, the impact on iPad 2 supplies has been only “modest,” according to one high-profile Apple analyst. Concerns expressed earlier now seem to be resolved.

“We believe the most critical suppliers are back up and running following the earthquake and the impact to supply will be modest,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told investors Friday. Deliveries of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 could be slowed by one or two weeks, he writes.

Apple’s already the most valuable company in tech, but are they on target to become the biggest company in tech as well? According to analyst George Colony, who founded the Forrester Research group, they’re on track: they’ll outgrow both IBM and HP in the next two years.

Apple had to shave a lot of extraneous features off of the MacBook to come up with a device as blade-thin as the latest MacBook Airs, and while we can obviously point to things like the presence of an optical drive as hardware that didn’t make the cut, one lesser known edit is the traditional notebook security slot, which allows you to fit your laptop with a lock.

MacLocks has a solution: the MacBook Air Lock and Security Case Bundle, which works with both the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs. It’s basically a case that you fix to the bottom of your MacBook Air, which comes with a security slot through which you can fix any compatible lock.

The MacBook Air is extraordinarily portable, so it’s natural you’d want to try to protect it from a run-by snatch and grab when you’re out writing at the local cafe. Even so, though, the MacLock solution seems to work by permanently grafting a case to the bottom of your Air, presumably by some sort of exoxy.

Do you want to protect your Air so much that you’d be willing to graft a case onto its underbelly permanently? $75 then. Me, I’ll continue to take my Air along with me when I have to go to the toilet.

Apple has stopped selling MobileMe to customers, and told educational institutions to push free 60-day trials of the service as a stop-gap, so we know a relaunch is coming soon.

Rumor has it that the relaunch will see Apple start to realize its streaming iTunes ambitions with the addition of a music locker. Users would upload songs they want to be able to access from any device. This would allow Apple to compete with services like Spotify and Rdio without cutting the legs of their iTunes digital download empire out from under themselves.

We’ve heard these rumors from so many sources at this point that we’re pretty sure. What we haven’t heard anyone do yet, though, is put a price on the new locker service. Now Music Void is doing just that, saying that the MobileMe iTunes locker services will cost somewhere around $20 per year.

Yet more signs Apple wants to be in your TV. The Cupertino, Calif. tech giant is building a “Smart TV prototype,” an analyst told investors Friday, citing Asian suppliers. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported Apple is talking with TV manufacturers about embedding technology enabling mobile devices to stream video content to televisions.

A Smart TV would give Apple another product category worth $4 billion for each percent of the TV market the iPad-maker and its partners captured, writes Morgan Stanley analyst Kat Huberty. A Pioneer executive was quoted Thursday describing Apple’s entry into the market “a blessing for an industry trying to move the needle forward on sales.”

Ten years ago Apple bestowed a new operating system unto the world, Mac OS X. A merger of NeXTStep and the Classic Mac OS, OS X finally delivered Apple’s first major evolution in OS design after a half decade of failed attempts: Taligent, Copland, Rhapsody…

To teach new users how to use its new creation, for a few years Apple included an explanatory brochure titled Welcome to Mac OS X with every copy. These booklets provided a helpful introduction to the new OS. In honor of the tenth anniversary of OS X, here’s a look back at how Apple described things in 2001.

Despite the overwhelming demand for the iPad 2 and the supply shortages across the U.S., it seems the device isn’t too hard to get hold of if you have a friend high up in the Apple camp.

English writer, director, and funny-man Ricky Gervais got his iPad 2 courtesy of Jony Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design.

Gervais announced in a post on his blog this week:

So I got two parcels today. One was the new iPad 2 from its genius inventor Jony Ive (it’s a work of art).

So, if you’re finding it hard to get your hands on Apple’s second-generation iPad, or you don’t want to stand in line for the international launch this Friday, all you need to do is write a Bafta winning sitcom, perform a sell-out stand-up comedy show, make a record-breaking podcast and become friends with Jony Ive.

We start the day with three hardware items in the deal spotlight. First up is a number of iPod touch units, starting with an 8GB model for $149. Next are several iPads, including one 32GB Wi-Fi tablet for $429. Finally is a 32GB iPod video unit for just $100.

Along the way, we check out some iPad accessories, including screen protectors, screen cleaners and discounts on cases. As always, details on these and many more items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Mac OS X celebrates its tenth birthday today. The groundbreaking operating system was introduced to the public on March 24, 2001. Mac OS X helped reverse Apple’s fortunes in the desktop PC market, and has underpinned a lot of Apple’s subsequent success. Most importantly, it spawned iOS, which runs today’s iPads and iPhones.

Below is the story of how OS X’s game-changing interface came about. The story gives some insight into corporate creativity at Apple. OS X’s interface started as a side project. But as soon as Steve Jobs got wind of it, it was fast-tracked. Jobs became intimately involved in its development — a scary prospect for the programmers working on it.

But the struggle wasn’t just in its development. Apple had to nail the switch from the old Mac OS to the new, or it could have sunk the company. Guess which ally was crucial to the transition — Apple’s old enemy, Microsoft.

With the launch of OS X, Jobs finally took the title of Apple’s permanent CEO. Prior to that he’d been the interim CEO, or iCEO, and OS X was the last major part of the company he needed to fix.

U.S. Air Force Combat Controller Ron Walker says he dropped his iPhone 4. That’s happened to us all, but at the time Walker was leaning out of a US Air Force plane door while preparing for a static line jump from 1,000 feet.

After the jump, Walker says he used the Find My iPhone app, and found his iPhone at the base of a tree in a forest. The phone was unscratched and worked fine, according to Walker.

The phone had a Griffin Motif case, and no other protection.

Go here to see photos of the actual phone.

iOS 4.3 is jailbreakable, but the iPad 2 isn’t… yet. The new A5 SoC presents a new and unique challenge for jailbreakers like the Dev Team, but if history is any guide, they’ll have a working jailbreak sooner or later, and quite possibly sooner rather than later, if a new tweet by Dev Team member p0sixninja is anything to go by.

Here’s hoping we’ll see an iPad 2 jailbreak in a few weeks: I’d like to cram a few more icons in my dock.

Ouch. Due to the vagaries of international time zones, it’s already March 25th in New Zealand, and that means that fans over there in Middle-Earth can order themselves an iPad 2… except even if you order one right now, you’re looking at 2-3 weeks before it is delivered. Imagine what that number will be like later today!

It’s not really a surprise: although Apple is going ahead with international orders, clearly they don’t have the supply to handle even America’s launch, let alone an international one. My guess is we’re looking at least a couple of months of iPad 2 scarcity before Apple can supply enough iPad 2s to everyone who wants one.

What does this mean for our international readers? The same as it meant for Americans: if you want an iPad 2 anywhere near launch day, you need to go to your nearest Apple Store and wait in line. Expect supplies to be even more constrained abroad than in the United States, though.

[via MacRumors]

Although the T-Mobile USA may not begin selling the iPhone for at least another year, across the ‘pond’, T-Mobile UK plans to offer a subsidized version of the iPad 2 Friday. The 16GB Wi-Fi and 3G iPad 2 will sell for $322 and $370, respectively, according to a Thursday report.

A two-year contract will be required for the 16GB Wi-Fi or 3G tablet. No 32GB or 64GB iPad 2 version will be available, the report says. Existing T-Mobile UK customers must pay $40 per month and a $322 initial payment, while new customers pay $43 and $370, respectively.