More indications that the iPad is cutting into PC sales, as well as their suppliers. Tuesday, one analyst put a “hold” recommendation on Intel’s stock, telling investors the iPad 2 could eat into notebook demand.
Canaccord Genuity analyst Bobby Burleson also lowered his price target on Intel shares to $19 from $22. Intel reportedly could announce disappointing second-quarter sales due partly to the supply disruption from Japan, along with Apple’s impact on notebook sales. He cut Intel 2011 revenue expectations to $48.75 billion, down from a previous $50.5 billion projection.
Estimated growth of PC sales in 2011 were cut in half while demand for tablets increase, prompting one Wall Street analyst to tell investors Tuesday Apple’s iPad has ‘usurped’ a portion of PC sales.
Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore trimmed his PC sales forecast to 4 percent growth, down from the 9 percent growth previously expected. Meanwhile, he expects 2011 tablet sales to increase to 45 million units, up from his previously expected 40 million. The analyst believes Apple will sell 35 million of the 45 million tablets.
I wondered how long it would take for someone to release a song or album that had been recorded using GarageBand for the iPad. Well, not even a month after its launch, pop punk band The Ultramods are the first to record all instruments and vocals for their 12-track album using the $4.99 application.
In an interview with The Loop, the band – which writes “pervy pop punk” and “technologically obsessed new wave” music – said that all of the instruments used on the album were those included in the GarageBand app.
If you’d like to hear their album, ‘Underwear Party’ is now available in the iTunes Store for $10, or you can listen for free on the band’s website.
Though The Ultramods are the first to record an album with GarageBand, English band Gorillaz announced back in November that their upcoming album ‘The Fall’ was recorded entirely on an iPad using a range of third-party apps. The album was released to the band’s fan club in December, and is currently available for pre-order through iTunes with an expected release date of April 19th.
The iPad 2 has beaten off competition to earn the top tablet rating in a recent Consumer Reports test. Devices tested along with the iPad 2 included tablets from Archos, Dell, Motorola, Samsung and ViewSonic. In a press release issued on Tuesday, electronics editor Paul Reynolds said that Apple’s device is ahead of its competitors on both quality and price:
So far, Apple is leading the tablet market in both quality and price, which is unusual for a company whose products are usually premium priced.
Each tablet was evaluated in 17 criteria, which included touch screen responsiveness, versatility, portability, screen flare, and ease of use. The iPad 2 topped the ratings, scoring ‘excellent’ in nearly every category.
Apple’s chief competition for the time being is the Motorola Xoom – which boasts the same 10-inch screen as the iPad but adds a built-in memory card reader and support for Adobe Flash. However, the Xoom’s $800 price tag doesn’t do it any favors.
The biggest difference between the 10 tablets tested was battery life. Obviously the iPad 2 came top with an impressive 12.2 hours of use, while the Archos 70 Internet Tablet could only manage an embarrassing 3.8 hours.
The first generation iPad was also part of the test, beating many of the other tablets but drawing equal with the Xoom.
So, it’s official – right now the iPad 2 is the best tablet available. But you already knew that.
Speaking at a keynote session at Storage Network World in Santa Clara, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was asked how tablet devices had changed the computer industry – his answer was that these devices are for ‘normal’ people – not geeks. Woz told the audience of enterprise storage engineers that:
The tablet is not necessarily for the people in this room. It’s for the normal people in the world.
Woz also said that it was also Steve Jobs’ intention to create products that were normal consumer appliances:
I think Steve Jobs had that intention from the day we started Apple, but it was just hard to get there, because we had to go through a lot of steps where you connected to things, and (eventually) computers grew up to where they could do … normal consumer appliance things.
A couple of screenshots have just leaked of Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet user interface.
Currently in pre-beta, Windows 8 is Microsoft’s shot at building a UI that’s suitable for both tablets and PCs. Windows 7 is not being ported to tablets. Early versions of Windows 8 have reportedly been shipped to Microsoft’s hardware OEM partners. So far, the UI hasn’t been seen, but two new screenshots indicate it is based on tiles, very much like Windows Phone 7.
The screenshot above shows the home screen, which features Microsoft’s Bing search engine front and center. Underneath are big tiles for shortcuts to Web apps or Web pages. Each app opens in a full-screen version of Internet Explorer, according to Within Windows, which first published the screenshots (The site is currently down. The screenshots have been republished at WinRumors)
The screenshot below shows a new e-reader app that includes built-in support for Adobe’s PDF format. Looking at the diagrams in the screenshot, it will include page scrubbing (to quickly scrub through a document) and multi-touch pinching and zooming. Apple may not like that.
Microsoft appears to be pushing a new file format called AppX (.appx), which will reportedly allow Windows Phone 7 developers to repackage apps in AppX and offer them through an app store that will be built into Windows 8. Sound familiar?
Our take? It looks OK. The tiled interface is pretty good on Windows Phone 7, but why are there still scrollbars if the interface is full-screen?
In case there’s any doubt about whether the iPad has ushered in a post-PC era in mobile computing, Zen Viewer is one app to consider on your path to enlightenment.
Made by the Skins Factory, Zen Viewer is a feast for the eyes, drawing on iPad’s generous screen real estate and graphics capabilities to make document management on Apple’s flagship iOS device a nearly sublime experience.
Choose from a half dozen customizable themes to suit your prevailing technical chakras and let Zen Viewer organize and balance the files on your device with its fully searchable file system, document reader, image viewer, audio and video playback device and audio recorder.
The app is fast and responsive, a wonderful showcase for the iOS touch navigation platform, with its colors and graphic elements lending a rich gravitas to the otherwise mundane realm of file management. Audio and video playback are flawless and the recording feature should be a boon to anyone still having trouble with the touch keyboard.
Some bugs and glitchy performance with WiFi transfer look like they need some polishing, which Skins Factory support says is being addressed, but for $2.99 and such an early version release (1.6.6 is the latest, updated 3/29), Zen Viewer has great potential.
Gift Plan – (Free for today – usually $0.99) iPhone – Productivity
Gift Plan is a fantastic little application for the iPhone that could save you a lot of trouble. Usually $0.99 – but free for 24 hours – it will remind you of special occasions and ensure you never miss a birthday or anniversary again.
A registered sex offender was sentenced to two decades in prison after engaging in sexually explicit chats and exchanging photos with a 12-year-old and a 13-year old girl.
Franklin DeCapua, who was living in Rochester, New York, found the girls in Nebraska by using a popular social networking app called Whoshere on his iPhone.
The girls, who are neighbors, were using it on the iPod Touch. The trio sent each other sexy pics and chatted about meeting for a sexual encounter. DeCapua was arrested before the planned meet-up.
TrapCallis an application by Tel Tech Systems that enables an iPhone user to find out who’s calling them from blocked or private telephone numbers. It just arrived in the App Store, but the developers submitted the application to Apple months ago – waiting a staggering 201 days for their app to be approved.
By using the TrapCall service and accompanying iPhone application, users who receive calls from a blocked number can tap the sleep button twice to decline it and pass it over toTrapCall. Almost instantly, the service will then send the user a text message with the name, telephone number and address of their caller.
