Apple has just started rolling out its latest iOS 7.1 update with performance improvements, design tweaks, and more. This is the first major update we’ve seen since iOS 7 made its debut last September, and it’s available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
It was only a matter of time, but here it is: TwelveSouth’s BookBook Case for the iPad Air, which makes your fifth-gen Apple tablet look the very model of some ancient, dusty tome, just plucked off of the shelf from the Library of the House of Usher.
Both obfuscating your iPad’s value from thieves and protecting it, the BookBook Case is a perpetual fave here at Cult of Mac.
Like previous models, it allows you to prop up your iPad at a 30 degree angle, both for typing and movie viewing. It comes in black and brown leather varieties — no red yet, sadly — and costs $79.99.
Source: TwelveSouth
Despite the fact that this year, as every year, Apple failed to show up at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the iPad Air still managed to win the award of 2014’s Best Mobile Tablet in the 19th Annual Global Mobile Awards.
I just switched back to the full-sized iPad – in the form of the iPad Air – after over a year of exclusive iPad Mini use. The reason? I can’t get on with the Retina Mini. The Mini is great in many ways, and so you’d think that an A7 Retina-ized version would be even better. But almost since I bought it, the new hi-res Mini has been driving me crazy.
How about an iPad accessory so dorky, so unashamedly utilitarian that even the Android-using Killian Bell just dared me to wear one around this year’s Mobile World Congress? Interested? Good. It’s the Survivor Harness from Griffin, and it is so named becasue if you wear it, you’ll struggle to survive the taunts and humiliation it will surely bring.
Kitchen Utensil. Mobile Office. Study Stand.
Sure, those don’t all go together, but Twelve South’s new iPad Air and iPad mini stand looks like nothing you’ve seen before. It might as well find a place in a kitchen drawer, next to all the Pampered Chef gizmos you’ve got in there.
This new iPad stand — made for the iPad Air and iPad mini — is foldable, easy to use, and just plain sweet looking.
Lovers of bookbindery cases who find beautiful plain leather covers a little boring can now tweak their Pad&Quill iPad Air cases with any number of fancy patterns. The highly-protective, last-forever cases can now be customized to order on the P&Q store, letting you obsess over such options as the delicious-sounding “Gold Metallic on French Roast,” and the distinctly 1980s-style " Chevron on Gray Linen.
Chil’s Notchbook iPad Air case has one great feature that sets it apart form other cases. There’s a notch, or rather a slice, cut into the bottom of the front cover just next to the spine, and this notch lets you shove your palm up in there making the whole caboodle sit on your hand with no effort needed to grip it.
Neat, especially for when you’re reading books.
Just like the old Trapper Keeper, the STM Dux iPad case keeps all your notes (which are actually inside your iPad, safe within the Dux’s covers). You can plaster photos all over the inside of the clear plastic back. And it even has a little flip-open clasp that keeps the front cover from opening.
With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year all now firmly in our rear-view mirrors, Apple is focusing on the next big sales holiday of the year: Valentine’s Day.
Describing the iPad Air and iPad mini as “two ways to your valentine’s heart”, Apple has posted a new ad campaign on the main page of its online store — advising that users take advantage of Apple’s free custom engraving to “include a few love letters on any iPad”.
As with many of Apple’s more prosaic advertisements lately, Apple’s recent Dead Poet’s Society inspired ad for the iPad Air and iPad mini, “What will your verse be?”, has alternately been praised and ridiculed by critics who were either touched or wanted to barf at the idea that buying an iPad is heling you write a living human poem.
Even if you love the ad, though, you have to admit that the ad shows a very different use scenario for the iPad Air than the one you have. In the ad, it’s used by helicopter rescue pilots, storm chasers, ice hockey coaches, musicians, Bollywood filmmakers, scuba divers, rock musicians and artists. You? You mostly just use it on the toilet. Admit it. You’re reading this on the toilet right now.
Source: Doghouse Diaries
When Apple unveiled the iPad Air back in October, they curiously decided to keep the iPad 2 around for another generation at a $399 price point… the exact same price as an entry-level iPad mini with Retina Display.
In theory, Apple’s idea here seems to have been to price the vintage iPad 2 at a sub-$400 price point so as to have a cheaper 9.7-inch tablet available for educational institutions, budget shoppers and the like. But it looks like no one’s really all that interested, with only one customer in twenty opting to buy an iPad 2 in the latest quarter. Despite this, though, average price of a purchased iPad fell for the second year in a row.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiyIcz7wUH0
During the NFL playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Carolina Panthers today, Apple has posted a new advertisement for the iPad, emphasing their tablet’s creative powers and the iPad’s ability to inspire and create.
The tagline is “What will your verse be?” The notion is that all of human life is a poem, and our individual lines are a verse in that poem. Depending on your own predisposition, you’ll likely either find it a little sappy and breathless or moving, but either way, Apple is right that far from just being for media consumers, the iPad is a profound creator’s device which can be used for filming, writing, 3D prototyping, and more.
There’s also a new Your Verse microsite, explaining the uses depicted in the commercial in greater detail. What do you think? How are you using your iPad to write your verse?
In news to be filed under L for “late to the party” Staples is finally selling the iPad Air and iPad Mini on its physical store shelves.
Phone up your local Staples, and you’ll hear a message informing you that the iPad is available both online and in the chain’s brick-and-mortar outlets. Prior to this, the tablets were only available through Staples’ online ordering service.
LAS VEGAS — For years now, Olloclip has been making stellar lenses that slip over the iPhone’s camera lens and enhance iPhoneography with the ability to take fisheye, telephoto and macro photos. But there has apparently been a struggle within Olloclip about whether or not to offer an iPad lens. Now the struggle is over, and iPad-loving photographers have won: The first Olloclip lens for iPad will be available soon.
Chong Pak, the company’s design director, told us there were only a few hurdles to clear before Olloclip went iPad — but those hurdles were tall.
If you upgraded your old iPad for an iPad Air late last year, you probably did so for several reasons — but I’ll bet one of the biggest was its new form factor, which is substantially thinner and lighter than any of its predecessors. The last thing you want to do with it, then, is slap a big chunky case on it that makes it even bigger than the iPad you owned before it.
Thule took that into consideration when designing its new Gauntlet folio case for the iPad Air. Although its main focus is clearly on protection, so the case is tough and robust and ready to absorb any impact, it’s also surprisingly light, and much thinner than you’d expect a case of this ilk to be.
It’s also practical, with rubber grips that provide a built-in stand for typing or watching movies, and a “stability clip” that keeps its front cover securely closed when your iPad’s not in use. There’s a soft interior lining that prevents scratching, and the Gauntlet provides easy access to all of your iPad’s buttons and ports.
There’s much to love about the CEO Folio and its accompanying web page. It’s the modern-day equivalent of a Filofax, and I guess even the “CEO” part of the name is a kind of upgrade to the mountain of “executive” faux-pleather crap that fills the pages of the Sky Mall catalog.
Anyhow, let’s ridicule it:
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Unlike LifeProof‘s iPad Air case, Pelican’s new ProGear Vault iPad Air case isn’t waterproof. Also unlike LifeProof’s iPad Air case, the ProGear Vault iPad Air case actually exists, now (since LifeProof’s iPad Air case isn’t here yet, we’re obviously assuming it’ll be as fully waterproof as all the other LifeProof cases).
While Android may be running away with the lion’s share of the smartphone market, there’s still no doubt about what rules the roost when it comes to tablets. New data from InfoScout reveals that roughly 40% of iPads sold on Black Friday were purchased by Android smartphone users.
Breaking with the tradition of Friday launches in India — and despite rumors that it would take place on November 29 — Apple has announced that customers in India will be able to buy the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display as of Saturday, December 7.
The euphoria of Black Friday is over, and like the comedown after any spend-heavy holiday it’s time to look at the receipts.
According to analytics firm InfoScout, the iPad Air and iPad mini were two of the day’s big winners.
Amazon has a new ad out for the Kindle Fire HDX that uses the new iPad Air as a scapegoat. It brags about how the HDX has more pixels (hardly any more), weighs less, and costs less.
Ho-hum. Microsoft, Nokia, and every other competitors make plenty of ads based on practically the same formula. What makes this new one from Amazon special is the iPad Air’s narrator. “This is the magical new iPad Air,” says the male voice with a slightly British accent—perhaps a subtle dig at Sir Jony Ive?
There are far more egregious examples of anti-Apple ads from other tech companies, and Amazon does make good points about the HDX weighing and costing less. Not sure why the narrator for the HDX has such a weird twang, but oh well. At least Amazon won’t have to pull this ad out of embarrassment.
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Hoping to get a nice discount on your next Mac or iOS device this Black Friday? Then you’d better buy it from a third-party retailer. Apple has taken a new approach to its Black Friday deals this year and decided to give away gift cards rather than discount its goods.
Recent reports have claimed that Apple’s had some difficulties manufacturing the new iPad mini with Retina display, which is why it didn’t shout too loudly about its launch earlier this month, and why the device hasn’t been too easy to get hold of in many markets.
But now that the initial supply constraints are easing, the Cupertino company will produce 4 million units during November alone, according to supply chain sources in Taiwan.
