It’s hard to recall now, but the number-one complaint about the iPhone when it first came out was the on-screen keyboard.

Engadget’s Ryan Block asked: “Will the iPhone be undone by its keyboard?” People talked about how on-screen typing would destroy the iPhone in the same way that the hand-writing recognition system helped kill the Newton.

Even more incredibly, one of the main iPad criticisms when it first came out was the visibility of finger smudges on the screen when you turn the power off.

These concerns seem quaint now, textbook examples of the limited human-ape mind trying to grapple with novelty. It’s like people complaining about their new “motor car” a hundred years ago by saying the infernal contraption fails to slow down when they say, “whoa, Nellie!” and won’t speed up when they whip the fender with a riding crop. “It’ll never catch on!”

Many annoying tech pundits (including and especially Yours Truly) bitched and moaned about Apple’s global ban on the sale of third-party physical keyboard and refusal to create one of their own.

I believe Apple deliberately used its red-hot iPhone product to force the world to accept and learn to appreciate on-screen keyboards, and break them of their physical keyboard habit. When Apple released the iPad a year ago, it was usable with two Apple keyboards (the standard Bluetooth keyboard and a new cradle keyboard). But no matter. The on-screen keyboard idea had already been accepted by a critical mass of users.

Despite widespread acceptance, people are still divided on whether on-screen keyboards are good or bad, and most still prefer a physical keyboard. But let’s look at the big picture.

You want your computer to be as secure as possible, right? Here’s one thing that newcomers to OS X might want to change pretty soon after getting their hands on their first Mac.

The OS X web browser, Safari, is a pretty good browser in almost every respect. But it has one default option that, personally speaking, I’ve never felt very comfortable about leaving switched on.

We received these cryptic press releases from two fairly well-known developers today, and we just thought we’d share them with you — especially since one of them was marked confidential and requested we not reveal anything till Monday; as if! We’re revealing it NOW! (Yes, we’re horribly easy to manipulate).

We close out another week with three hardware deals in the spotlight. First up is a number of unibody MacBook Pro machines from the Apple Store, starting at $929 for a 2.4GHz 13.3-inch model. Next is a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook with 13.3-inch screen for just $500. Finally, another round of Mac minis, starting at $599 for a 2.4GHz version. All are April Fool’s-free deals.

Along the way, we check out an eMac G4 PowerPC desktop for $100, a 2GB iPod shuffle for $34 and a leather case for your iPad. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Toy giant Hasbro Inc. is bringing 3D to your iPhone and iPod.

For about $35, their new goggles called My3D promise to bring a new experience to your Apple devices. Available in black or white, they launch in exclusive at Target stores on April 3; the U.S. retailer has an exclusive for the goggles until June.

The design is a little more streamlined than the version we showed you back in November, but it still looks a little like a View-Master, which first brought the 3D experience to kids in 1939 and slunk off into the sunset due to declining sales in 2009.

Instead of those little plastic discs of the View-Master familiar to kids the world over, with My3D you’ll be able to download special apps from the iTunes store.

There are currently eight free apps available on iTunes, ranging from Tunnel Pilot and Shatterstorm to 360° Shark.

Hasbro promises there will be a mix of gratis and paid content available — likely to include trailers and movie snippets following the 3D film trend.

Lumiere is yet another photo effects filter app for iOS, but before you sigh and say: “Oh no, not another Hipstamatic clone,” I want you to pause and give this one a second look.

What makes Lumiere different isn’t that it applies filter effects to your photos – Hipstamatic and a gazillion other apps already do that – but the way it lets you flick from one effect to the next.

Concerned citizens in Kentucky can report “suspicious activity” to their state branch of Homeland Security through an iPhone app.

Called Eyes and Ears of Kentucky, the app is offered gratis on iTunes. The handiwork of developers NICUSA, it has been in the store since March 7. So far, it has not received enough reviews to reach an average rating. Through the app, you can report a suspicious incident or activity along with details about the alleged subjects and their vehicles.

Unlike iFixIt’s gag, this Playmobil Apple Store Playset isn’t a real product, but if enough people are interested and Apple’s lawyers look the other way, maybe it could be.

From the description:

A quick peek at the miniature Genius Bar and we were feeling a bit woozy. Then we saw the tiny Steve Jobs presenting in the Keynote Theater on the top floor and that was it. Our wallets popped out faster than you can say Jonathan Ive and we plunked down whatever money was needed to own this amazing playset.

Of course, once we had the playset, we had to get the optional Line Pack to simulate our own exciting Apple product launches. Since it comes with a tiny Woz on a tiny Segway, it was a no-brainer. We decided that Apple & PLAYMOBIL™ together is the most unlikely and awesome collaboration ever. It changes everything.

Think Geek’s brought its April Fool’s Day products to market before, so it’s possible this could become real someday.

Soon, Little Rock, Ark. may be known for more than being the site of former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s library. Reportedly, Apple may open its first store in the city of 190,000 this October. Before you get your bags packed for the ribbon-cutting, be aware there’s been similar chatter since 2007.

However, a blog that tracks Apple’s retail moves reports the Cupertino, Calif. company has signed a lease in the Chenal Mall. If the report bears out, the addition could remove a gaping hole in what is described as a ‘black-out zone’ for Apple retail locations. The zone stretches from the Gulf to southern Missouri.

When you bring in your iPhone for repair, Apple has a nasty habit of replacing your iPhone’s standard Phillip’s Head screws with proprietary pentalobular torx screws, which require a very special driver to remove. The result? It becomes all the much harder to repair your iPhone yourself.

iFixIt‘s April Fool’s Day joke this year may be a gag, and a good one, but it’s also a real product: an iPhone Oppression Kit that allows you to replace normal phillips screws with pentalobular ones, or vice versa. $10.

Today’s April Fools Day, which means that most of the news today will be in the form of witless lies propagated by mouth-breathers to try to “gotcha” bloggers, all to appease some ancient Pagan God. We will be doing our best not to partake in the festivities, so in the mean time, please enjoy this video of a Claymation iPad, produced by Svetlana Shokhanova at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow.

The formula for transforming a stock Apple product into something worthy to be sold for a boatload of money to the most garish of Beverly Hills Frankensteins and gaudiest of Middle Eastern Oil Barons is as old as time: buy something from the Apple Store, drizzle it in glue, then roll it in crushed glass and gold foil and voila: a luxury iProduct.

Here’s the latest: the ZShock Lunatik iPod nano watch case, a product with its audience clearly identified in the title. Diamond-encrustations, white gold, Apple’s second-cheapest iPod, all yours for just $18,000.

How successful might an iPhone 5 be on Verizon’s LTE, or 4G, network? Although the new handset with support for the faster technology isn’t expected until late this year, we can get a glimpse via Verizon’s recently-introduced Android-based Thunderbolt from HTC. Nearly a third of Verizon stores report the Thunderbolt is outselling the iPhone.

While 61 percent of the 150 Verizon stores polled by BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said both the iPhone and the two-week-old Thunderbolt are selling equally well, 28 percent of the locations report more customers are asking for the Android-based smartphone. Just 11 percent said the iPhone is preferred.

Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci becomes the latest head of a PC company to exit after fighting a losing battle to topple Apple’s domination of the tablet market. Apple’s successful iPad and other products is seen as the “key reason” why Lanci left.

Executives at Motorola, Toshiba, Sony, Lenova and Asustek Computer reportedly could also be dethroned, according to an industry publication, citing unnamed sources. “First-tier smartphone and PC brands are still unable to find an effective strategy to counter Apple’s advance,” the Taiwan-based DigiTimes writes.

Have you ever needed to move Microsoft Word documents between your Mac at home and your PC at work, but you just didn’t know how, or if it was even possible? Once you know what to do, it is a relatively simple and straightforward process that requires nearly no effort. Find out what to do in this video.

Supplies of the first-generation iPad are now beginning to dwindle away as Apple sells off the last few units of its original tablet. Since the launch of the iPad 2, the original model has been sold at a discounted price through the clearance & refurbished sections of the Apple online store, and on Thursday the 16GB Wi-Fi model disappeared completely.

32GB and 64GB models of the Wi-Fi iPad are still available in the refurbished section, but there are only 3G models left in clearance.

Despite the launch of the iPad 2, it’s expected that the remaining iPad stock won’t stick around too long thanks to the generous reductions Apple has made to their price tags. The 16GB model was previously listed at $349 before it sold out – $150 below its original asking price – but the cheapest model now left is the refurbished 32GB Wi-Fi at $429.

So, if you’re not happy with a 4-week wait for the iPad 2, and you’re happy to settle for the first-generation device, you’d better get your order in quick before the device is no longer available from Apple.

[via Electronista]

We’re hearing rumors that Steve Jobs is on the verge of resigning from Apple.

Nothing more than that: Jobs is about to leave the company he co-founded 35 years ago. The anniversary of Apple’s founding is today. It was established on April 1, 1976.

This is totally unconfirmed, but there is chatter about it. A local TV news channel has also been asking about the rumor.

Maybe it’s an April Fools’ joke. Most likely, it’s just the Silicon Valley echo chamber. We’re throwing it out because there’s talk about it.

Jobs is still on medical leave that began in January.

This is Blotter, a new productivity application that’s turned up in the Mac App Store.

It does one job, and that’s display your calendars from iCal on your computer desktop.

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Jason Bradbury, the self-proclaimed Apple Expert, has discovered a simple hack that allows owners of the iPad 2 to take X-Ray style photographs through clothes. By applying a filter after blasting a subject with infrared light, the iPad 2’s camera can see through clothing. The best part of the hack is that you don’t need any type of training in radiology as it is incredibly simple and utilizes everyday household objects (infrared light and cellophane) to make it work.

The steps are quite simple:

1: Flood a subject with infrared light. Bradbury recommends using a digital camera with a night vision mode, or a children’s toy that uses infrared light. The infrared light penetrates the clothing and will be able to be picked up with the right filter.

2: Cover the camera on your iPad 2 with two layers of cellophane. The cellophane acts filters out the natural light enough to wear the infrared light comes in stronger and is picked up by the iPad 2’s camera lens.

3. Start snapping pictures. With your infrared source in place and your filter setup you are now ready to start taking some amazingly cool photos.

Have you ever found yourself thinking that your Mac takes too much power or that your MacBook battery is draining too quickly? If you have, you’ll want to check out this video. In it, I’ll show you some of the best, yet most overlooked options for saving energy on your Mac.

Twitter for iPhone users, rejoice: the #dickbar is dead.

Officially called the QuickBar, it was nicknamed in honour of Twitter boss Dick Costolo.

It was supposed to be a discovery tool for Twitter users – a way for them to find out what’s happening, to see trending topics and sponsored tweets.

There was only one small problem: pretty much everyone hated it.

We start off the day with two iPad-related deals. First is a 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad for just $529. Next is a 2.4GHz MacBook with for $919. We wrap-up the spotlight with a Luxury iPad convertible flip case for just $7.

Speaking of iPad cases, there are a number today. We also check out some iPhone accessories. As always, details on these and many more items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Calling himself “Steve Jobs’ best customer,” a politician in charge of a government efficiency drive in the U.K. hopes to end the “monopoly” from companies like Microsoft, Fujitsu, BT and HP.

Ian Watmore, former head of the e-Government Unit, is now CEO of the coalition government’s Efficiency and Reform Group. He’s calling for smaller, less expensive IT projects (capping them at £100m), criticizing the previous administration’s “over-ambitious projects.”

If you are wondering just how briskly the iPad 2 is selling, you don’t have to wait until Apple announces official sales figures – just ask the online auction site eBay. Thursday morning, the service announced just under 12,000 of the new generation tablets were sold in the two weeks between the start of U.S. sales and the recent launch in 25 additional countries.

Among the interesting figures, a majority (65 percent) of iPad 2s sold through eBay went to domestic customers, nearly double the 35 percent for the original iPad in 2010. Canada and Russia topped the list of international destinations for the iPad 2. Intriguingly, Russian demand for the iPad 2 is much higher than for the first tablet, according to eBay.

If you’ve been wondering when Adobe’s Photoshop offerings on iOS are going to stop being so lame, don’t worry: Adobe’s working on an awesome new iPad Photoshop App, and they just debuted it at PhotoShop World. Make sure to stick around to the end when they show off the 3D style layers animation at the end. Wow.

[via MacTrast]