iPad - page 301

In the competitive rush to win over students and parents by providing the latest technology, one university is letting freshmen decide between an iPad and MacBook Pro.

First-year students at George Fox University in Oregon have been handed personal computers along with their orientation packets for the last 20 years. The devices are included with tuition.

School officials admit they don’t know how much help an iPad will be for trig or anthropology homework.

“The trend in higher education computing is this concept of mobility, and this fits right in,” Greg Smith,  the university’s chief information officer, said in a press release.

“At the same time, we realize there are a number of uncertainties. Will students struggle with a virtual keyboard? Can the iPad do everything students need it to do when it comes to their college education? These are the kinds of questions we really won’t know the answer to until we get started.”

So the school will offer both in fall 2010. Some majors, like film or engineering, may need the extra power from a MacBook pro. But the school also reckons that if the student already has a laptop, an iPad might just be the ticket.

“How the numbers work out will be interesting, but no matter what I think we will see many iPads, iPhones and iTouches throughout the undergraduate population,” Smith said.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the iRush to get students involved with the iPad before it even comes out — tech-happy Abilene Christian University, where the students already go to iPhone dev classes and have been given iPod Touches since 2008, is already working on an edition of the school paper for Apple’s latest device.

Ever since the iPad’s January 27th announcement, the big questions have been when Apple will actually start allowing customers to pre-order their new tablet, especially given a mid-to-late March launch.

We may now have our answer. According to a rumor on the AppAdvice, a reliable source is telling them that Apple will allow people to pre-order an iPad as soon as February 25th… in other words, this Thursday.

If Apple does start pre-orders on Thursday, we can probably expect the WiFi iPad to be sent out and sold live starting on March 26th, 2010. As 9to5Mac notes, Apple tends to sell new products on Fridays, and the 26th is approximately sixty days from the iPad’s announcement.

Of course, the iPad still hasn’t been approved by the FCC quite yet, so whether or not this rumor turns out to be true depends on whether or not we see the iPad bubble up in the FCC’s database before Thursday. Still, it feels about right: Apple needs to start pre-orders soon to make their March ship date, and since I’ll be on an international flight this Thursday, this historically lines up with my own admittedly anecdotal rule that Apple will always start selling or allowing pre-orders for new products I want to buy from them when I am physically, geographically or financially incapable of doing so.

What it is: Zinio, in partnership with major publishers of traditional books and magazines, offers subscription-based digital content over the Internet and via its iPhone/iPod Touch native app available free in the iTunes AppStore.

Why it’s cool: Zinio has spent the past 10 years helping people get digital access to the traditional magazine content they already love. Now, at the dawn of Apple’s iPad era, Zinio is poised to offer some of the most compelling content iPad users will see on the device — and just may help save the ailing traditional publishing industry in the bargain.

Many have wondered about Apple’s model for distributing e-reader content — how it will look, what it will cost, and what Apple’s percentage of the revenue take will be — when the iPad makes its market debut in March.

Jeanniey Mullen, Zinio Global Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, told us in a wide-ranging conversation at Macworld earlier this month such concerns make no difference to her, since Zinio’s own model will remain platform agnostic. “Our most important relationships are with publishers and readers,” she said. “Zinio revolutionizes the reading experience and we’re excited about iPad’s potential for making that a great mobile experience” but the company doesn’t sell its current content through the App Store and that won’t change when the iPad comes along.

What you are looking at is a screenshot of the contents of the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK, and those circled files? Look at their names. That’s just About as clear an indication as there can be that a forthcoming iPhone, the iPad or both will be able to make video calls.

That’s not all. 9to5Mac has also dug up some references in some of iPad’s telephony applications of imbedded video chat strings.

You can always count on Apple to be secretive. Trade Privacy LLC, a trade data protection company, has determined that Apple has successfully managed to block public access to their shipping freight import records in the lead up to the iPad launch.

What this means, essentially, is that it should prove impossible to guess when the iPad is actually in the country and slated for launch based upon publicly available US Customs records.

That’s not a big deal, because we roughly know when the iPad is going to hit these shores (late March), but it will also make it harder to predict future new products and product line refreshes based upon Cupertino’s freign import data. That’s previously been one of the more valuable sources of concrete data about what products Apple will suddenly say are “available in stores now,” so this is a pretty big victory for the obsessively secret Apple… if less so for professional Apple rumor-mongers like me.

Steve Jobs unloaded on Flash during a meeting with Wall Street Journal executives last week, according to Gawker.

Jobs met with editors of the Journal to show them the new iPad. The Journal make widespread use of Flash on its website for video, infographics, etc., and editors raised concerns about the absence of Adobe’s plug-in.

According to Gawker: “Jobs was brazen in his dismissal of Flash, people familiar with the meeting tell us. He repeated what he said at an Apple Town Hall recently, that Flash crashes Macs and is buggy.”

Here’s some video of Wired‘s digital version of the magazine in action.

Check out the amazing 360 of the car ad at the 1.33 point. A glossy magazine ad comes to life and you’re able rotate it with your finger. It’s totally sci-fi — and very, very cool.

Wired’s EIC  Chris Anderson says the iPad and other tablets are a big opportunity for the publishing industry, and Wired is betting big on them.

“Much is still to be answered about magazines and other media on this emerging class of devices, from the business and distribution models to the consumer response. But what is already clear is that they offer the opportunity to be beautiful, highly engaging and immersive, going beyond what’s available on the web. I think tablets are going to sell like hotcakes, in part because they offer such an intimate, rich media experience. We’re betting big on them, as you can see, but this is just a taste. Stay tuned for a full release this summer.”

The app is designed to run using Adobe’s Air, but can be easily repurposed for the iPad and other devices, Anderson says. He showed it off for the first time last week at the TED conference.

Via Wired’s Epicenter blog.

Big shocker: Microsoft isn’t supporting Adobe’s Flash in its brand new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Windows Phone 7 joins Apple’s iPhone and iPad in snubbing the widely-used plug-in.

The news was delivered to Information Week, which received a surprise email from Adobe saying:

“While the newest version of Windows Phone won’t support Flash at initial availability, both companies are working to include a browser plug-in for the full Flash player in future versions of Windows Phone. More details will be shared at Microsoft MIX next month.”

Information Week is skeptical. It says it’s not clear if Flash is coming to WinMo 7 at all.

Microsoft launched WinMo 7 on Monday to great acclaim. Blogs like Gizmodo and Wired’s Gadget Lab, which got to play with the new system at the Mobile World Congress, say it looks better and is easier to use than the iPhone. (Giz: Windows Phone 7 Interface: Microsoft Has Out-Appled Apple; Gadget Lab: Hands-On With Windows Phone 7 Series

Of course, Microsoft makes its own Silverlight platform, a rich-media platform which competes with Flash on the web.

Although Apple has remained officially mum on the issue of Flash, it’s widely understood that the company views the plug-in as buggy and power-hungry.

Not all smartphone makes are snubbing Flash, however.  Adobe just announced Flash for Google’s Android platform, it’s first step into mobile.

Information Week: Windows Mobile 7 Won’t Get Flash

Via Gadget Lab.

Children — those sticky, mucous-leaking, disaster-prone calamity goblins! — tend to have an unhealthy fixation with their parents’ gadgets. By ‘unhealthy,’ I mean for us, and not for them: no matter how many times your pudge-kneed toddler drops your iPhone into the toilet, common decency prevents us from clobbering the little monster for the affront. The only thing to do is buy yourself a new iPhone, then try to distract your feral, post-fetal doppelganger from indulging his or her innate impetus to destroy it with a plastic toy simulacrum.

Toy makers have been banking on just this for years. Consider all of the plastic laptops and cell phones and MP3 players on the shelves of your local Toys ‘R’ Us. Every gadget under the sun has a bright plastic analogue, ready to be sacrificed to your child’s agency of destruction and save your most cherished gadgets.

Apple’s new iPad, when it is released, is going to be a particulaly tempting object for the average kid to mindlessly throw, smash, bend, smear bodily fluids upon, or all of the above. But Fisher-Price — old saws at this game — have you covered. They’ve just announced their own iPad-inspired device for children, called the iXL.

It looks pretty good. It allows kids to look at photos, read e-books, play music and games, and even dink around with remedial art and note taking programs. Of course, since your kid’s probably just going to smash the dog in the head with it, then use it to blow up the microwave when you’re not looking, the $79.99 price tag might seem a bit much… but it’s better to be out $80 than $499, don’t you think?

The digital version of Wired Magazine for the iPad and other devices will be a “game changer,” Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson said Friday.

Showing off a demo of the digital magazine at the TED conference on Friday, Anderson said the interactive magazine brought print’s high-production values to digital for the first time.

“We think this is a game changer,” he told the audience.

Anderson said the digital magazine is on track for a summer release. The iPad is expected to be on sale by the end of March.

Via Wired’s Epicenter.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — You’ve probably seen the late pitchman Billy Mays on late-night TV smashing his hand with hammer while it’s wrapped in Impact Gel — a super cushioning material used for insoles.

In fact, Impact Gel was featured in the first episode of PitchMen, the Discovery Channel show featuring Mays and his partner Anthony Sullivan.

Now, Impact Gel is being used to make a laptop sleeve that can be hit with a hammer and dropped without damaging the contents.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — Programmer Bill Atkinson, one of the lead authors of the original Mac system, says the iPad will be a big success — and that you have to play with it to understand the magic of the multitouch interface.

“This guy is going to be a real winner,” he said, holding up a model he’d made for himself to visualize how his PhotoCard app would look on the device. Atkinson took part in Guy Kawasaki’s Friday morning keynote presentation.

“Once you get it in your hands and play with it you don’t want to set it down,” he continued. “I think Apple’s got a hit on their hands here.”

Atkinson said he’d played with an iPad for a couple of hours. It’s not a laptop and its not an iPhone, he said, but an entirely new, third device. The magic is in using your fingers to directly manipulate elements onscreen.

Returning to using a mouse is like using a remote control, he said — clumsy and awkward.

Highlighting another awkward portability problem the iPad may have — like that condom case — these prototype pants give one that dangerous did-you-just-mess-yourself look?  But worn this way, the iPad would provide excellent lumbar support.

Via Alltop

This waterproof case for the iPad will probably provide more consumer protection against unnecessary purchases than traditional spending prophylactics.

When the iPad was unveiled, many of us at Cult of Mac who are bag/case junkies wondered just how you’d best carry the device around.

With enough time, cool cases are sure to come. But the iPad is a somewhat oddball size to protect and serve — swaddled in cloth cases it’ll probably look, well, even more pad-like and hard to use on the go, with rubber or plastic border protection like a cell phone it’ll be an awkward size.

This clear envelope style with blue or purple border costs $19.99 from the ironically-monikered TrendyDigital Design. It can also be worn around your neck or shoulder with adjustable strap and was originally designed for the Kindle or Sony e-readers.

Insert joke here.

Companies seem to be treating the iPad more seriously than they treated the iPhone when it was first announced… at least as far as scrambling to make sure they get their content available on it.

Case in point: Hulu.com, which streams popular television shows to millions of users in the United States through their web browser. According to Techcrunch, Hulu is now in the process of trying to get their content on the iPad… but they’ll need to ditch their online Flash video player to do it.

In truth, that’s not really a big deal. Hulu’s videos are already encoded in H.264, so they should run on the iPad without a problem. As Techcrunch points out, the big issue is making sure Hulu’s ads — all of which are in Flash — are iPad ready. A hurdle, sure, but not a big one… and one that can be gradually rolled out over time. I doubt any of us will mind a few less ads on Hulu through the iPad, at least initially.

Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates has never been shy about commenting on Apple’s products, and now, in response to the iPad announcement, he’s pretty much towing the line of the general Windows world response to Apple’s new tablet: meh.

“You know, I’m a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard — in other words, a netbook — will be the mainstream on that,” Gates reportedly told Brent Schlender of BNET.

“So, it’s not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, ‘Oh my God, Microsoft didn’t aim high enough.’ It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'”

Cult of Mac reader Jason Guest got fed up with waiting for Apple’s latest device to hit stores, and so he made his own tablet—the iFelt.

My original theory that Apple ruled out a camera in the iPad because they couldn’t figure out a way around the double-chin dilemma is starting to look sillier by the moment. Apple clearly intends to put a camera in the iPad… in the second generation. First-genners looking to video conference? You’re just out of luck.

Need more proof? Here’s the latest Apple job posting looking for a software quality engineer to exclusively work on video and image capture for the iPad Media Group.

Earlier today, I was reading Infoworld’s article, The iPad questions Apple won’t answer. The first question they listed was “Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad?”, and their assumed answer was “No”; they suggested that the only way to do this would be to open a document from an email message.

I read that and I knew it wasn’t the case. I knew I’d seen something that suggested to me that the iPad has on-board storage for documents. It was something I’d seen somewhere before, and for a moment I couldn’t think where. Then I remembered.

It was here:

This is at 1:04 in Apple’s official iPad announcement event.

Apple’s refusal to spec their devices with memory card readers continues to irritate. My assumption has always been that the lack of an SD card reader on the iPhone has to do with two things: discouraging customers from buying the lowest priced iPhones and cheaply supplementing the storage with an SD card instead of shelling out a couple hundred more on the higher-capacity models, and making sure iTunes is the only real entry to shift to the device.

Still, when Apple updated the iPhone OS to firmware 3.0, adding functionality for iPhone peripherals into the mix, it was only a matter of time that we’d see an aftermarket SD card reader accessory… and here it is, ZoomIt.

Essentially, you plug the ZoomIt SD reader dongle into your iPhone or iPod Touch’s dongle connector, launch the free ZoomIt app and you’re free to shift any file supported by the OS to and from your device.

Of course, this isn’t really an expandable storage solution, but it wouldn’t be a bad way to backup photos from your camera while you’re on the road… and it should even work on the iPad. You can pre-order the ZoomIt now for $50, with a ship date in April.

Perhaps in a bid to become the world’s leading iCollege, Abilene Christian University will publish an edition of the school paper designed for iPad.

The Texas institution — where the IT studies department was rechristened iSchool — started equipping freshmen with iPhones and iPod Touches back in 2008. The iSchool also started prepping iPhone devs of the future with a 2009 programming course.

Since 2007, they’ve also published the twice-weekly school paper dubbed “The Optimist” (a commentary on future journalists?) for the iPhone.

“The faculty as a whole and the department discussed it, and we said we have to do this,” Dr. Cheryl Bacon,  chairwoman of the department of journalism and mass communications told The Daily Orange. “It’s just too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Peter-Paul Koch is a man with opinions about the mobile web. And his latest opinion is a trifle controversial: Mobile Safari, he says, is this generation’s Internet Explorer 6. All the rage now, but destined to be hated by webdevs of the future.

Last month, we wondered how many people would care about the iPad’s restrictive DRM shackles, which makes Apple the only available supplier of software for the iPad through the fact that users can only download software onto the gadget from Apple’s App Store (unless someone figures out a way to jailbreak it — which’ll probably happen within the first 48 hours after it ships, considering the fact that the iPad’s OS is based off the continually jailbroken iPhone, and the supposition that every genius hacker on the planet is spending every waking moment thinking about it).

Anyway, apparently the answer is: thousands.

The clever people at Information Architects have released a free Omnigraffle template for iPad app design.

For those of you who’ve never used it, Omnigraffle is a wonderful visual design tool that can be turned to all sorts of tasks. It can create any manner of diagram, but works even better when enhanced with template themes that add specific visual widgets.

This particular set of widgets gives you almost everything you’d need to mockup an iPad app of your own. It includes drop-downs, alerts, the software keyboard, and loads more. Various bits of text are customizable, so your mockup looks as real as possible.

It will be even better when Omnigraffle itself is ported to the iPad – something that Omni Group boss Ken Case told us they would do as soon as possible (more about that here.)

The Internet can always be counted on to promptly deliver simulacrums of the latest announced Apple product created in two distinct geek mediums: LEGO and papercraft.

Last week, we had the inevitable LEGO iPad, so it was only a matter of time we got the origami version. Here it is, courtesy of Obamapacman: a DIY iPad papercraft mockup.

It’s a pretty simple project. Just print the model out on a color printer at 150 DPI, cut along solid lines, fold on the dotted lines and glue the yellow seams together; then off to the local cafe, prowling for Apple-loving geek girls, gullible suckers or both!