Here are some fancy photos of the iPad overnight at Apple’s 5th Avenue store in Manhattan, courtesy of our friend Richard Gutjahr, who is currently first in line for an iPad.
Check out Richard’s campout blog here (BTW: it’s in German, but there’s a Google translate button).
If you’re going down to the Apple Store to buy an iPad on Saturday morning, here’s what to expect:
Even though Amazon’s hardware Kindle reader will be toast at 9AM Saturday morning, Amazon has just released its Kindle app for the iPad.
The app is free and available for download from the App Store.
Professional line sitter Greg Packer has been bumped from the front of the iPad line at the 5th Avenue Apple Store.
Packer didn’t reserve his iPad, so he’s dropped behind German blogger Richard Gutjahr, who did reserve an iPad.
“Apparently nobody before me in the original line had a reservation,” Gutjahr just emailed me from his iPhone. “Crazy.”
As we reported yesterday, Packer began his campout to be first in line for an iPad on Thursday. Packer is a professional line sitter who has gained considerable media attention for being first in line for scores of events, including the original iPhone and Ground Zero.
Gutjahr says Packer is angry about getting bumped. “He seems to be really mad,” Gutjahr wrote. “Funny thing: the media still thinks he’d be the number one who gets the iPad. But he needs to wait until the reserved line is done. And that one is lead by me. Who would have thought this?”
Gutjahr says there are about 20 people in line so far at the flagship Manhattan store. He and the others in line plan to camp out all night until the iPad goes on sale at 9AM. Gutjarh is blogging the event.
Crowds are expected to be light because Apple offered pre-orders and reservations. Most people will receive their iPads by UPS tomorrow or will pick up reserved iPads at Apple stores in the morning.
Still, the absence of a big crowd at the Cube-shaped store — normally a huge tourist attraction — is giving Gutjahr pause. “Hope its not a flop,” he wrote.
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 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 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?
The best review of the iPad is from BoingBoing’s Xeni Jardin, who brilliantly describes the joy of the iPad’s touch interface.
But the best quote comes from Theo Gray, the creator of a magical new iPad education app — The Elements — a fantastic, interactive Periodic Table. (You can briefly see it in action in the PCMag video review below. Hit the 3:47 mark).
Xeni asked Grey to put into words the magic of the iPad, and he said:
“The Elements on iPad is not a game, not an app, not a TV show. It’s a book. But it’s Harry Potter’s book. This is the version you check out from the Hogwarts library. Everything in it is alive in some way.”
Go read the rest of the review. It’s well worth it.
Hulu is coming to the iPad, and possibly as a subscription app, charging a monthly fee for watching popular TV shows, says the NYT.
Citing “four people briefed on its plans,” the NYT says Hulu’s 200-odd partners are pressuring the site to raise more revenue for online TV, and that a monthly subscription on devices like the iPad has obvious potential.
(Hulu’s CEO) declined to talk about any future Hulu products, but he waxed enthusiastic about the coming wave of ultra-portable tablet computers like the iPad.
“Typically media consumption in the house was confined to the living room or home office,” he said. Tablets, he added, “allow consumers to serendipitously discover and consume media in every room of the house.”
The news is no surprise, really. It’s obvious that Hulu, which has done more than any other company to mainstream online TV, would not pass up a major media-consumption device like the iPad.
Plus, Hulu’s videos are already encoded in H.264, so they should run on the iPad without a problem. The big issue is making sure Hulu’s ads — all of which are in Flash — are iPad ready.
PCMag’s iPad review is a must watch. It’s a quick, breezy tour through the iPad and what it can do (iWork, games and eBooks, etc.). The best I’ve seen so far, including Apple’s guided iPad tours.
The big three tech reviewers — Walt Mossberg, David Pogue and Ed Baig — have all given the iPad pretty enthusiastic reviews. Of course, being pro reviewers, they are obliged to remain cooly professional and criticize shortcomings like the lack of Flash, multitasking and camera. But read between the lines, and these are pretty much double-thumbs-up:
WSJ’s Walt Mossberg: iPad has better than 10 hours battery life, email and other writing is surprisingly easy and productive, and digital newspapers are “gorgeous and highly functional.”
As I got deeper into it, I found the iPad a pleasure to use, and had less and less interest in cracking open my heavier ThinkPad or MacBook.
NYT’s David Pogue: Thinks nerds will be unmoved but technophobes will love it. Says it’s not as good as a laptop for “creating stuff,” but miles better for consuming books, music, video, photos, Web and e-mail.
For most people, manipulating these digital materials directly by touching them is a completely new experience — and a deeply satisfying one.
USA Today’s Ed Baig: Says Apple is “rewriting the rulebook for mainstream computing.”
Apple has delivered another impressive product that largely lives up to the hype.
The New York Times this morning calls Tony Fadell the “godfather” of the iPod (he’s leaving Apple for greener pastures). But the title should probably go to Jon Rubinstein, the former head of Apple’s Mac and iPod divisions and now CEO of Palm.
The history of the iPod’s development is told here and here, but the short story is:
1. In late 2000, Steve Jobs asked his executive team to look at gadgets people were attaching to the Macs. Perhaps Apple could do a better job of designing them. Videocameras were an obvious candidate, but they were already pretty good. Jobs wasn’t sure Apple could do better. But early MP3 players were a different story — they were horrible.
2. Jon Rubinstein, the head of hardware, hired Tony Fadell to look into making some prototypes, but the project didn’t go into high gear until Toshiba showed Rubinstein a tiny 1.8-inch hard drive it had just developed. They had no idea what to do with it, but Rubinstein did.
3. Rubinstein called Jobs to tell him he’d found the perfect technology for an MP3 player, and he kept Fadell on to oversee the early protoypes. Fadell did such a good job, he went on to become head of the iPod division and eventually took Rubinstein’s job.
As Steven Levy says in his writeup of the iPod’s development, The Perfect Thing:
There is no single “father of the iPod.” Development was a multitrack process, with Fadell, now on staff, in charge of the actual workings of the device, Robbin heading the software and interface team, Jonathan Ive doing the industrial design, Rubenstein overseeing the project, and Jobs himself rubbernecking as only he could.
However, I give credit to Rubinstein, who was at the heart of the development process. He had the initial technological insight, put together the team to develop it, and led the charge to keep improving and updating the device. If there’s a godfather of the iPod, it’s Jon Rubinstein.
The first shipments of iPads have arrived at the huge UPS facility in Louisville, KY, and will soon be heading to customers’ home towns.
The UPS shipping info for CoM’s iPad, which was ordered last month, says the iPad is undergoing “UPS internal activity” (whatever that is) in Kentucky. UPS ‘s all-points international air hub is based in Louisville.
We were surprised the iPad is already here. When we last checked the shipping info a couple of hours ago, the precious iPad was supposedly sitting in Shenzhen, China, where it was assembled.
Little did we know it was being airfreighted to the U.S. and would soon be rescanned into UPS’s system.
UPS system is unbearable, btw. The constant updates providing an incentive for obsessive checking and rechecking. I can’t wait until Saturday.
Here’s a very cool mockup of the iPhone 4G with an aluminum “unibody” enclosure from our friend Graham Bower of MacPredictions.com.
The mockup takes its style cues from Apple’s current lineup of unibody MacBook Pros, which are carved from single slabs of aluminum. Metal gives the iPhone a much nicer look and feel.
Like today’s rumors, Graham is predicting a front-facing camera and a high-resolution screen. A high-res screen would allow the iPhone to display more than one app at a time (multitaking!):
And given that the iPhone OS now supports multiple resolutions, a higher resolution screen is also eminently possible. Perhaps we’ll even be able to pinch and zoom the icons on the Springboard. A higher resolution screen also makes dashboard widgets for the default Springboard screen more likely – it’s hard to believe that Apple will sit by while Android and Windows Phone 7 Series are enjoying this feature.
Thanks Graham!
Several tidbits of information about the iPhone 4G are circulating today:
The front-facing camera has been rumored for some time and evidence for videochat capabilities has been found in the iPhone 3.2 SDK. The 960×640 screen is double the current 480×360 resolution.
Engadget says the high resolution (most Android phones are around 800×400) will earn the name “iPhone HD” (makes sense). Engadget was also tipped the iPhone will be launched on June 22nd (a Tuesday, naturally).
The Apple-designed A4 chip is a full system-on-a-chip with better graphics capabilites than the current Samsung-made ARM CPU, making it capable of powering the HD screen without taking a performance hit.
And third-party multitasking was pulled from the iPhone 3.2 SDK at the last minute, so it’s ready to go for both the iPhone and the iPad.
Via 9to5Mac, Daring Fireball and Engadget.
After nine years, iPod co-creator Tony Fadell has opted to exit Apple to get a hand in “green” tech.
Fadell is credited with hatching the idea of a hard-drive-based digital music player in the 1990s. He first took the concept to Real Networks, but left after just six weeks due to clashes with CEO Rob Glaser.
Fadell found fertile territory for the project at Apple, where he was the first member of its iPod hardware engineering team in 2001. Working with Jon Rubenstein, Michael Dhuey and Jonathan Ive in under a year, the iPod was born.
Fadell was was promoted to vice president of iPod engineering in 2004, then named senior vice president of the iPod Division in April 2006.
His final exit isn’t that much of a surprise: Fadell stepped down from that position in 2008, staying on in an advisory role to Steve Jobs.
The forty-year-old Fadell kept mum about the motives behind his decision but told the New York Times that he was saying adios to Apple to advise companies and pursue private investments with a focus on green technology.
“My primary focus will be helping the environment by working with consumer green-tech companies,” he said. “I’m determined to tell my kids and grand kids amazing stories beyond my iPod and iPhone ones.”
Apple is working on two new iPhones for a summer launch, including an iPhone for Verizon, the Wall Street Journal claims.
While Apple has unveiled a new iPhone every June or July since launching the product in 2007, the new model with CDMA capability, the cellular technology used by Verizon, is notable because Apple and AT&T Inc. have long had an exclusive relationship with the iPhone. That has given AT&T a competitive edge over other carriers including Verizon for the last three years.
While Apple has unveiled a new iPhone every June or July since launching the product in 2007, the new model with CDMA capability, the cellular technology used by Verizon, is notable because Apple and AT&T Inc. have long had an exclusive relationship with the iPhone. That has given AT&T a competitive edge over other carriers including Verizon for the last three years.
A Verizon iPhone has looooong been rumored, the Journal story is a major step towards confirmation. The Journal cites “people briefed on the matter.” Apple, AT&T and Verizon all declined to comment.
A Verizon iPhone would be a huge win for Apple. Verizon is the biggest carrier in the U.S, with 91.2 million customers. It’s network is reputed to be the fastest and most reliable.
As the launch of the iPad approaches, Apple has published a slew of guided video tours of the new device.
Published on Apple’s website, the tours include guides on how to use Safari, Mail, YouTube, and the iWork suite.
The tours also include a closer look at the iBooks app, which now seems to have previously-undisclosed features like word search, table of contents and a ratings/review popup. The tour also reveals a system-wide Dictionary.
All in all, the iPad looks really slick. I can’t wait for Saturday.
The 10.6.3 update has just been released and includes a raft of bug fixes for QuickTime, OpenGL and more.
The 437.2MB update is available via Software Update and is recommended for all users of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
The list of fixes, enhancements and improvements is after the jump:
Although they are supposed to be mortal enemies, Steve Jobs was just spotted chatting amiably with Google’s Eric Schmidt at a coffeeshop in downtown Palo Alto, reports Gizmodo.
Overheard from the conversation were two lines by Jobs. Enthusiastically, “They’re going to see it all eventually so who cares how they get it.” Which seemed to be about web content, said the tipster. And, “Let’s go discuss this somewhere more private,” after they noticed the crowd gathering around… Schmidt was very quiet, listening, and Jobs was doing a lot of the talking.
And as Giz notes, what’s that black thing on the table? An iPad maybe?
Someone just forwarded me this hilarious story about a woman who was pinned to the floor by her Mac Pro.
The Mac Pro is a big, heavy machine and can weigh upwards of 40 lbs. The story circulated on an Apple consultant mailing list recently. Here it is, typos and all:
This is by far one of the funniest tech calls that I have ever recieved. One of my clients called this morning to say she is trapped under her MacPro tower and she needed me to come asap to help her out. I asked “where are you?” and she said “at home not at the studio”. She screamed “just get here!”. So I rushed over there, punched in the key code to get through the gate and entered her house calling out her name. I found her laying flat on her back on the staircase with the MacPro crushing her chest. I ran up there to pull the tower off her and I couldn’t help but to laugh. You see she is this small 4 foot 6 inches middle aged tiny lady. She just didn’t have the strenght to push the tower off. She had this idea to move the tower upstairs but because the tower was so heavy for her, she thought she could pull the tower while laying flat on her back over her body. Crawling the machine slowly up the stairs. It didn’t work. Helped her move the tower upstairs but the tower ended back down stairs anyway. It was just too funny.
So there you have it. Pro tip: Don’t move heavy machines around by putting them on your body and crawling across the floor.
After Jerome York’s recent death, the Wall Street Journal has an interesting overview of the history and composition of Apple’s Board.
Apple’s current board is only made up of six individuals, making it one of the smallest boards of the Fortune 500.
One of the reasons Apple’s board is so small is that one of the stipulations of Steve Jobs’ return to Apple was that all of the members who “let things go to hell” were fired, and the remaining board members were hand-picked for their personal loyalty to Jobs, which was tested by Jobs recent illness.
Despite this, the recently deceased York himself was disgusted with the way Steve Jobs handled his illness, saying that Jobs should have publicly disclosed his health problem three weeks earlier in the same news release that announced he was pulling out of the Macworld trade conference. He claimed the concealment “disgusted” him: “Frankly, I wish I had resigned then,” York said last year.
It remains unclear when or even if Apple will choose to replace York, but if so, it’ll be another cherry-picked Jobs candidate.
It’s worth noting that while the remaining members are extremely loyal to Jobs, York’s passing actually removes one of the most vocal and outspoken independents on Apple’s board, which could increase shareholder unrest.
A fascinating read. Check out the whole thing.
According to research by Deutsche Bank that assembled the revenue and operating profits of the top ten PC makers in the world, Apple is destroying the competition when it comes to being profitable.
In fact, an astonishing 35% of the profit to be made in the computer sector is deposited directly into Apple’s piggy banks. This is despite the fact that Apple only accounts for 7% of global computing manufacturer’s revenue.
In fact, only Dell and HP come close at tickling the underbelly of Apple’s precipitous pile of lucre…. but with revenue share numbers vastly more proportional to their profit shares.
As you can see, Cupertino’s head-rippening of the competition continues.
Apple is now accepting iPad apps for a “grand opening” of the iPad App Store, according to an email just sent to registered developers.
“iPad will begin shipping soon and your opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the iPad App Store starts today,” the email says.
There’s no details about when the store’s grand opening will be. Apps have to be submitted by March 27 to be part of the grand opening. The iPad is due to hit stores on April 3.
See the screenshot for more details.
