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!
The announcement of the iPad has done a lot of things: it’s stoked up excitement in the Mac using community, it’s got a bunch of developers feverishly coding exciting new stuff, and it’s got retailers and cell phone companies the world over drooling over the money they can make from it.
And it’s also somewhat upset my plans for buying a new Mac.
Magazine and news publishers are collectively hoping that e-readers and tablet computers will save their businesses, and Apple’s eager to get them on board in developing high-quality animated versions of their publications to help get an iPad into each newspaper and magazine reader’s home, so it’s no surprise that Steve Jobs met with fifty top executives of the New York Times yesterday.
What was surprising, though, was Jobs’ attire: a magical top hat, of the sort championed by Mr. William Wonka and Miss Marlene Dietrich.
According to New York Mag, “When Apple recently booked the cellar dining room at Pranna for a talk with 50 top executives from the New York Times, even restaurant higher-ups didn’t know who their VIP guest would be. But last night, Jobs came strolling in wearing what our source calls “a very funny hat — a big top hat kind of thing.”
Like the hat, most details of the meeting are anecdotal. Jobs apparently admitted he likes to hold the Sunday edition of the New York Times in his hands, ordered a mango lassi and penne for dinner (neither of which were on the menu) and otherwise just showed off Apple’s new device to executives while answering questions.
Overall, it seems like the NYT executives present were interested in the iPad, but unwilling to lock themselves into a single delivery platform. Business as usual, in other words. Still, who knew that the man who hasn’t once been seen in the five years wearing anything besides blue jeans and a black turtleneck was such a secret dandy?
Now that we all know what the iPad is going to look like, the library of concept designs we used to illustrate the old “Apple Tablet” rumor posts look pretty silly, but they’re occasionally worth examining for ideas just not on what Apple could do with the iPad next… but what accessory makers might do.
This Yanko concept for the “MacView” tablet seemed like a pipe-dream even a few weeks ago, but what I particularly like is the iMac-like display shell it slides into in desktop mode.
Really, there’s no reason an accessory maker couldn’t make that work. Since the iPad can be paired with any Bluetooth keyboard, all this really is is a stand: design a free app that automatically pairs your keyboard with your iPad and you’ve got a pretty decent, touch-controlled iMac Mini.
A lot of people are nonplussed by the iPad because it doesn’t seem so new, or even very useful. It’s just a big iPod touch. So what?
But one of the most interesting things Apple said has about the iPad is how it improves the “experience” of doing everyday computing tasks — email, web browsing, making photo slideshows.
Again, people say so what? We’ve already got laptops for email and watching movies. But improving experiences is exactly what Apple is great at. The iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player, but the first anybody could enjoy using. The same thing is going to propel the iPad into the mainstream. Everyday tasks like sending email and reading newspapers are going to be so much nicer on the iPad than any other device. (see for example the New York Times screenshot after the jump.)
Software developer Fraser Spiers has been digging through Apple’s iPad videos, pulling screenshots to take a closer look at the details of the iPad’s UI. His conclusion? It’s going to provide a very good experience not just for media consumption, but also media creation.
Look at what’s in here: a full stylesheet engine, multi-column page layout, a complete library of cell formulae and a full set of builds and transitions. You can create a Magic Move transition on the iPad. That’s probably the most advanced technique you can do in Keynote, and it’s there on the iPad.
Wired EIC Chris Anderson at Pop!Tech 2008. CC-licensed photo by Kris Krug/Pop!Tech.
Of course Wired is prepared for Apple’s iPad, says Chris Anderson, the magazine’s editor in chief.
Responding to Tuesday’s piece that Wired‘s digital version won’t work on the iPad, Anderson says the magazine knew all along about Apple’s aversion to Flash and Air, and has a solution.
“Obviously we knew about Apple and Flash from the beginning and there were no surprises there,” he says in an email. “We have a solution and will launch on the iPad according to plan and on schedule, along with Android and Windows — it’s a full cross-platform strategy, which was the idea all along.”
Anderson wouldn’t say what the solution is, but it’s a good one, he claims.
Amazon obviously has a lot to fear from the iPad, and they seem to know it, if their latest acquisition is anything to go by: they have just purchased Touchco, a small company that makes very cheap multitouch displays. Oh, and they are merging it into their Kindle division. Duh.
Touchco’s touchscreen technology is pretty cool: not only is it cheap, but it’s sensitive to pressure, and can detect an infinite number of simultaneous touches. It’s also totally transparent, which means it won’t mute the full color LCD screens for which it is designed like other touchscreens solution.
It’s pretty clear Amazon’s planning a truly impressive, full-color, multitouch update to the Kindle… but they need it sooner rather than later. The iPad’s not even out yet, and it looks like Apple’s won the battle. Better crack the whips on those Touchco engineers, Amazon.
Kevin Lynch, Adobe's CTO, says Flash on the iPad is essential to the "open" internet. Except Flash isn't open.
Adobe’s chief technology officer has finally weighed in on the great Flash debate, and is taking potshots at Apple for not supporting Flash on the iPad. Adobe’s head software honcho Kevin Lynch says Flash on the iPad is essential to the “open” internet. Except Flash isn’t open.
Comic book publishers are super eager to get their strips in full living color on the iPad, if a round up by Publisher’s Weekly is anything to go by.
“I can’t remember seeing something that I so urgently wanted since I saw the first G.I. Joe with Life-Like Hair commercials in the early seventies,” enthused Gonzalo Ferreyra, sales and marketing VP at Viz Media, “as it relates to digital publishing of illustrated books, the iPad opens up tremendous possibilities. This appears to be the device that will allow users to carry a library of manga around with them any where and every where.”
Abrams’ ComicsArts executive editor Charles Kochman called the iPad the future of e-reading, adding that “The Kindle always felt limited: a lack of color and a standardized typeface seems antithetical to my ideal reading experience and counter intuitive to the careful consideration our designers give to the books we publish. The iPad seems to satisfy all of those concerns and offers the best of what I love about my iPhone and my Mac.”
Only one graphic novel exec, Filip Sablik of Top Cow, was “cautiously optimistic” that the iPad would be a “game changer” for digital comics. “What Apple has done incredibly well in the last decade is take existing technology–laptop, mp3 player, smart phone–and made it really sexy and really easy to use. Right now it looks like the iPad might follow those to pillars of Apple’s success.”
The publishers seemed to be in agreement that while the iPad will be great for reading on the commute, lots of different readers — from small kids to serious collectors — will still want paper editions.
Wired Magazine built an interactive version of the print publication for the iPad -- using Adobe's Air. But like Flash, Air isn't supported on the device. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
My old friends at Wired tell me that the magazine’s designers scrambled to finished their gorgeous digital version of the publication just in time for Apple’s big iPad launch last week.
Trouble is, the interactive prototype was built using Adobe’s Air — which means it won’t work on the very device it was built for. Like Flash, Apple isn’t supporting Air on the iPad.
“The magazine industry was hoping to finally get over the pay wall with a fancy, shmancy iPad version of their precious slick glossy (but) gets caught with their pants down and their wee wees out,” said one insider.
Our eagle-eyed patent scouring friend Jack Purcher over at Patently Apple has noticed a cool new filing trickle through the USPTO pipe, which deals with tablet computer with advanced touch technologies.
The patent describes technology which uses a touch-capable bezel that could control things like music volume, track skipping, zooming functions or even gaming controls. Given the iPad’s pretty sizable bezel and Apple’s recent forays with display-less, touch-capacitive surfaces (e.g. the Magic Mouse) this seems like it would be a great addition for next-generation iPads… especially in addition to a touch-capacitive back.
This is a very Apple thought process. We’re unfortunately a long way away from eliminating bezel entirely from our devices, and as much as Apple might want out iPads to just be slates of glass in our lap, it’s not going to happen anytime soon, Making the bezel actually useful is the next best thing.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that major publishers have approached ScrollMotion to adapt their textbooks for use on the Apple iPad.
You may have seen ScrollMotion’s existing e-books in the App Store: the company takes existing books provided by publishers and adapts them so they look good on the iPhone or iPod Touch’s smaller screen, then enhances them with built-in search, indexes, dictionaries and interactive flourishes.
Not very surprising that a company devoted to translating e-books to a format that takes advantage of the iPhone’s innate capabilities would be looking to do the same thing for the iPad. But according to the Journal, ScrollMotion has a long list of big-name textbook publishers already lined up,including McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Perason Education and Kaplan.
This development makes apparent the huge advantage the iPad has over the likes of the Kindle DX in the college textbook market: not only is the iPad a fantastic student tool in its own right for things like note taking and playing around with study-specific apps, but its textbooks can be truly interactive in a way Amazon’s currently can not.
That’s a revolutionary leap forward in the way students learnt… and the iPad is priced cheap enough that almost any student can afford to own one.
Steve Jobs doesn’t follow a presentation template but as outlined in my new book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, he does consistently follow the same principles that have turned Apple product launches into an art form. The iPad announcement on Wednesday, January 27th was no exception: classic Steve Jobs.
The formidable Economist magazine has blessed Steve Jobs with a rare cover story examining the potential impact of the Jesus tablet.
Even rarer, the iPad story is mostly positive, even if the religious imagery is over the top.
The Economist fancies Jobs’ chances of shaking up not just one industry, but three — especially media:
Jobs’s record suggests that when he blesses a market, it takes off. And tablet computing promises to transform not just one industry, but three—computing, telecoms and media.
Companies in the first two businesses view the iPad’s arrival with trepidation, for Apple’s history makes it a fearsome competitor. The media industry, by contrast, welcomes it wholeheartedly. Piracy, free content and the dispersal of advertising around the web have made the internet a difficult environment for media companies. They are not much keener on the Kindle, an e-reader made by Amazon, which has driven down book prices and cannot carry advertising. They hope this new device will give them a new lease of life, by encouraging people to read digital versions of books, newspapers and magazines while on the move. True, there are worries that Apple could end up wielding a lot of power in these new markets, as it already does in digital music. But a new market opened up and dominated by Apple is better than a shrinking market, or no market at all.
Although that $499 entry-level iPad is pretty much affordably by everyone, Apple will still be making a rather sizable profit on each one, if a bill-of-materials (BOM) breakdown conducted by BroadPoint AmTech analyst Marshall is to be trusted.
According to the BOM, the low-end $499 iPad only costs $270 to make, with the 9.7-inch touch-sensitive display being the most expensive element at around $100, with the 16GB SSD and aluminum case each costing only about $25.
As the storage jumps, so do Apple’s profits: the 32GB and 64GB iPads only see their costs rise another $25.50 and $76.50, respectively, but their suggested prices go up $100 and $200.
Apple’s most profitable BOM item? The 3G radio: it only costs them $16, but Apple’s charging over $130 for it. I personally wonder if some of that mark-up might be shared with AT&T to compensate them for assumed profit losses related to the month-by-month, cancel-anytime iPad 3G deal, but either way, Apple’s charging a premium for the functionality.
It’s all an estimate, of course — no one will know the iPad’s true cost until it’s actually vivisected after launch — but Apple knows how to put together a high-quality product that is both extremely profitable and an extremely good value. I wouldn’t be surprised if these numbers were exactly right.
There’s little to fault the Apple iPad for, at least as far as the price is concerned. The entry level $499 price is low enough that even those with their reservations about the iPad can pretty much afford to pick one up.
Or can they? According to an analysis by CBS MoneyWatch, the true cost of an iPad over four years is much higher than Apple is claiming.
Sharp-eyed observers have noticed what looks to be an iSight camera in the iPad Steve Jobs used in last week’s keynote.
Even though Jobs didn’t talk about a camera, and it’s not mentioned in Apple’s official tech specs, something that looks like an iSight camera can be seen when Jobs first holds the iPad up for everyone to see.
As he holds it up, the light catches the iPad’s surface, illuminating something underneath. That something looks like an iSight camera, similar to the ones built into MacBooks, under the screens.
It’s not conclusive, of course, but corroborates the prototype images published by Engadget in the run up to the event, which clearly show an iSight camera in the same position. And references to a camera have been found in both the iPad’s Address Book software and the iPad firmware.
The absence of a camera on the iPad has been one of the device’s most puzzling omissions. Although, as our own John Brownlee first noted, a camera in a tablet that’s sitting in your lap, staring up at you, doesn’t produce the most flattering camera angles.
UPDATE: A repair company called Mission Repair says the iPad’s frame clearly shows an empty spot for an iSight camera, and it is exactly the same size and shape as the iSight slot in a MacBook’s screen frame. (Mission Repair received a shipment of iPad parts on Monday, the company blog says).
Here is Steve Jobs’ iPad keynote in less than 180 seconds. It’s wonderful! Amazing! Incredible!
The video sums up “all the important words,” says its creator, Neil Curtis.
“I assure you that no scene is repeated and everything was said on this keynote!” he adds. “Oh, and please don’t take it personal: it’s meant to be humor!”
Engadget has confirmed the reports of “extremely trusted sources” that the iPad’s iPhone OS 3.2 contains support for a host of long anticipated features, including video calling, file downloads and even SMS messaging.
According to their sources, the current beta of iPhone OS 3.2 includes hooks to accept and decline video conferencing, as well as flip a video-feed (for a front-mounted camera) and run the video call in either full screen mode or in a small window.
More than that, iPhone OS 3.2 currently hints at file downloads and local storage in the browser, which means you can finally slurp down a link to, say, an MP3 or eBook and use it in iTunes or iBooks. It also has hooks for iPad-specific SMS messaging.
This is preliminary code, and none of this functionality works right now, but at the very least, it implies some future developments in both the iPad and iPhone. It’s the video conferencing stuff that’s really interesting though: the iPad contains no camera, so either Apple’s already programming video conferencing support for the iPad 2G, the next iPhone is finally going to get a secondary forward mounted camera… or both.
Of all the criticism being leveled at the iPad — no multitasking, poor text input, lack of 23rd century Federation replicator technology — I’ve yet to hear anyone complain about the attractive $499 entry-level price. But just in case you aren’t convinced that the iPad is ridiculously, absurdly cheap for its feature set, behold, the inevitable infographic, put together by Darren Beckett.
There’s criticisms to be leveled at the Infographic — it ignores, for example, comparisons to various Android and Intel Atom based tablets in favor of attacking e-readers — but it still gets the point across: the iPad beats the competition, spec for spec, at the cost of a very slight price premium. In fact, in direct comparison, only the Barnes & Noble Nook seems to be appropriately priced in comparison.
For what it does, the iPad is simply the cheapest tablet out there. Don’t expect a mere infographic to finally put to rest the inexorably critical mutterings of the so-called “Apple Tax,” though.
A lot of commentators on the iPad noticed the similarity between Delicious Library and the iBooks virtual bookshelves for the display of e-book titles. So did Delicious Monsters Wil Shipley.
Talking to the Washington Post, Shipley seemed upset… but also seemed to understand.
But the thing about iBooks is, it’s a book-reader. So, of course they looked around, found the best interface for displaying books (Delicious Library’s shelves), and said: yup, this is what we’re doing…
Shipley then notes that he actually understands why Apple couldn’t write him a check: it would have been taken as a legal admission that Apple copied his design, and since Delicious Library’s UI isn’t copyrighted or patented, it actually would open up culpability, not close it.
As inevitable as the dawn follows the night, a LEGO simulacrum will follow the announcement of the latest Apple product announcement. Here, then, in dimpled, rainbow colored blocks, the necessary LEGO iPad, courtesy of Flickr user Brickjournal and his plastic brick ingenuity.
Although it’s hardly as killer a feature as carrier unlock, one of the main reasons I still jailbreak my iPhone is so I can cram five icons into the dock… so when the iPad was first demonstrated, and showed only four available icons in the dock, I actually winced.
No need to fear, though, because this time, Apple has us all covered: a reader wrote into TUAW and pointed out that the iPad SDK allows up to six icons in the dock.
You might assume the iPad supports this behavior because of the larger screen, but the iPhone crams five icons into the dock just fine. I’ve always assumed, in fact, that the iPhone only allows four icons so that each dock’s icons is symmetrical with the columns of icons above.
I wonder two things: will the iPad, then, allow up to six icons per row, to make everything symmetrical with the dock? Finally, will the next iPhone update expand the dock similarly? Fingers crossed on both accounts.
