In the movie Contact, when revealing to main character Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) that there is actually a second space travel machine that was being built at the same time as the first one, but in secret, S.R. Hadden (John Hurt) says, “why build one when you can have two at twice the price?” Apple, it seems, may have the same line of thinking.
By now, we’ve all seen the iPad and know just about everything about it that we possibly can. But did you know that the secretive company may actually be hard at work on a second device already? Now, before I say anything else, take this information with a grain of salt. While it originated from a good source, it was a second-hand source. Meanwhile, I’ve corroborated some the main details with another source, but not some of the smaller ones. That said, from what I’m hearing, Apple is pretty far along on work on second tablet device. A bigger one. And this one may be much more like a Mac than an iPhone. → Read More
Okay, we’ve all seen the iPad now. We’ve read all about it. We’ve seen video of it in action. But how is it to actually hold? I took a bunch of pictures of people playing with it in the demo pit today after Apple’s event. The consensus amongst those I talked to? It’s actually quite comfortable.
I played with one myself for a bit and have to agree. While it’s nowhere near as light as a Kindle, it feels much more solid and because it’s significantly larger, is easier to hold with two hands. But it’s also light enough that holding it with one hand is not a burden. And it’s extremely thin. Plus, unlike the Kindle, you can easily swap between portrait and landscape positions. → Read More
By now you’ve probably seen the videos on Apple’s site showing the iPad. But those aren’t always indicative of the way it actually works in real life. Luckily, Apple had plenty of iPads in a demo pit area after the event today and we captured some footage of a few applications actually being used.
In the video below see Apple’s new Keynote app (built specifically for the iPad), as well as the new iBooks app, in action. As you can see, the device is very fast. Also note the Apple employee talking about using the iPad to make calls. → Read More
[UK] Nobody generates hype better than Apple and we Brits lap it up just like everybody else.
Hitwise Intelligence, the web measurement firm, reports that the iTablet, iSlate, Apple Tablet (or whatever) was the 4th most searched for ‘laptop’ in the UK last week. A product which doesn’t even exist yet, although it’s not expected to remain a rumor for much longer. Just in case you haven’t heard, today is the day that Steve Jobs will finally let the cat out of the bag. → Read More
http://cdn.livestream.com/events/crunchgear/new/index.html This is where all of our live content for today’s Apple event will live. To make things perfectly clear, Apple won’t let us film inside the event. However, CrunchGear and a special surprise guest will offer a full play by play. Feel free to turn on your headphones at work and listen to the news as it happens or watch us live complete with coverage from San Francisco before and after the event. We will start streaming live at 12:30pm EST/9:30am PST and the event begins at 1pm EST/10am PST. Tweet us live at @crunchgear with the hashtag “#applelive.” You can read our previous tablet coverage right here. Want the traditional live blog? Rock out below at about 12:30pm EST. There is no need to refresh your screen as this system will update automatically. Let the games begin. → Read More
The big day finally arrived, and Apple introduced the iPad this morning (yeah, you heard that already).
Strangely, during the course of the much-anticipated event, Apple’s stock went down, as observed by many. And then, Apple finally got around to talking about pricing. → Read More
Steve Jobs revealed the Apple iPad today, its much-awaited tablet computer (see our live notes). Jobs positions it as a third computing device between a laptop and a smartphone geared towards the “key tasks” of Web browsing, email, sharing photos, watching videos, playing games, and reading digital books. All current iPhone apps will run on the device, as well as new games and digital books designed specifically for it. An enhanced iPhone SDK released today will support both the iPhone and the iPad.
Some specs: The device has a 9.7 inch display, weighs 1.5 pounds, and is half-an-inch thick. It is powered by new chip made by Apple itself, a 1 GHz A4 and will come with 16Gb to 64 GB of storage. It supports WiFi, has an accelerometer, compass, and built-in speaker and microphone, just like the iPhone. The screen is a full capacitive multi-touch screen. Battery life is supposed to be 10 hours. In addition to WiFi, it will have a 3G option from AT&T. The Wifi-only version, with 16GB of memory, will cost $499. A 32GB version will be $599, 64 GB will be $699, and with 3G from AT&T it will cost $829.
On-stage, Apple highlighted the iPad’s use as a digital reader. The iPad comes with a new app called iBooks → Read More
We’re in the middle of Apple’s special event, where Steve Jobs is showing off the much-anticipated iPad for the first time (yes, that name is now official). And judging by one photo captured during the presentation, it looks like the device won’t support Flash. As Jobs showed off the iPad’s browsing capabilities, Engadget captured a photo of the tell-tale blue missing plugin icon that shows up when you try viewing a Flash element without the plugin installed.
Whether or not the Tablet would support has been a topic of extensive debate. The iPhone has never supported Flash, and Apple has never done anything to indicate that it would be coming out any time in the near future (in fact, their strategy appears to involve moving away from the ubiquitous plugin). With that in mind, the iPad’s lack of Flash support comes as no surprise. But the device features browsing as a key element, and there are going to be plenty of people trying to access their casual Flash games and Flash-based video sites, only to be met with that frustrating icon. → Read More
http://www.hulu.com/embed/ytMwE-DPK9PbDaEub_3uSQ/762/889 Wait in line, buddy. → Read More
Fair warning, this is probably a fake – we all know that people love to prank the night before an Apple event. Some suspected pictures of the iPad have shown up on the net, but it looks fishy to me. → Read More
So very true. [Slate via Daring Fireball] → Read More
At this point in the game, you know as much about the Apple tablet as we do — squat. Sure, some esteemed tech pundits seem to have it all figured out, but they don’t. Hell, Apple might not even announce the iPad tomorrow. That’s what I’m praying for. But we’re curious, what’s your ideal Apple tablet look like? Mine would be an 11-inch slate that can dock on its side in an iMac-looking fashion so it could serve double-duty as a small desktop and allow for a more natural text input via a keyboard and mouse. An updated interface is a must, too. Sound off in the comments after the jump. You have to have something in mind. The Internet has been obsessively covering the damn thing for years. → Read More
McGraw-Hill. Ever heard of them? If you’ve picked up any textbook written in the last hundred years or so, chances are they published it. Well, their CEO just spilled the beans on Apple’s not-so-secret surprise on live TV. → Read More
To say there are no shortage of Apple Tablet rumors leading up to tomorrow’s event is perhaps the king of all understatements right now. But here’s maybe the best one yet. Apparently, Fox is in the process of cutting a deal with Apple to get the tablet on an upcoming episode of 24 this season.
That news comes from Rodney Charters, who is the director of photography on the show. He’s been tweeting about it pretty much all day, first saying it might be in episode 20 (episode 5 just aired this week), but then saying it might actually be more like episode 22. At one point, Charters notes that he’s “getting giddy with excitement” about the possibility. He’s not the only one. → Read More
This isn’t a rumor, it’s just a wish. I’m hoping that the Apple Tablet that is announced tomorrow will have a capacitive touch interface that extends past the screen and to the actual case. Particularly the back of the device where the fingers will naturally rest during two-handed use.
Touch interfaces are something I’m sort of obsessed with. Like most people, the iPhone was what really opened my eyes to what it could do. I was one of the first individuals to actually buy a Microsoft Surface computer, happily paying $17k, including delivery and warranty. And I joyfully tested the Microsoft TouchWall, and still beg them to actually ship that OS and touch kit. I’ve also bought at least one of just about every touch computer out there, just to see how they perform.
Touch is awesome as a user input mechanism. But there are problems. One problem is that it doesn’t work well at all on machines sitting on a desktop because of arm fatigue. → Read More
Apple isn’t the only company with tablets. HP and Dell showed off its slate concepts at CES ’10, but their demo’s left us with so many questions. HP’s CTO Phil McKinney at least reveals a bit more about his company’s offering. But hopefully he’s out of the loop a bit and HP actually has more planned for the device. Otherwise, the HP Slate will be about as successful as the HP TouchSmart iMac clones.
Phil gives the background about the Slate’s development at HP. He explains that the company has been working on the unit for about five years and it started out as an ereadering device. But then as many things do, it evolved into what he’s showing off in the video.
But this slate is plagued by the same fundamental flaw as the vast majority of the current tablets: Windows. Phil states that the device will run plain-jane Windows 7. That’s a problem because even Windows 7 with its added touchscreen capabilities is not suited for extended tablet use without a stylus and Apple/Palm/RIM/HTC has proven to the world that we don’t need styluses. (stylii?) → Read More
A tweet posted on Twitter account @Media_Markt_de resulted in a flurry of blog posts on leading tech news sites, reporting on possible confirmation of the existence and indicative pricing of the upcoming Apple tablet (including our own CrunchGear), albeit cautiously warning that there was something fishy there, considering the high pricing.
Turns out the Twitter account was indeed a fake. German electronics retailer Media Markt told IT news site Golem (in German) that the Twitter account does not belong to them at all. → Read More
Media Markt is large German retailer with, it seems, an overactive Twitter account (and, it must be said, a very red website). Netbooknews.de claims they caught them in the act of tweeting the name and price of the upcoming Apple Tablet.
I’ll not tease you. It says iPad, and the price is €499 with a €120/month T-Mobile contract or €899 without. Hmm. I’m thinking nein. → Read More
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