9 to 5 Mac has some photos of the new beast. I can’t wait to I have one on my desk at work.
Category: Apple
iWork for iPad Updated
New features include iDisk connectivity for storage, the ability to export to native Office formats and a tool for grouping and ungrouping objects.
On the RIM Tablet
Jared Newman over at PCWorld has posted a piece titled “4 Ways a RIM Tablet Could Smoke the iPad, Galaxy Tab.”
Obviously, a loaded headline. Let’s take a look at this:
1. Blackberry Messenger
One feature that both the iPad and the Galaxy Tab lack is a quick and simple way to communicate with others. Messenger could be a cornerstone of the BlackPad, allowing people to stay in touch with Blackberry phone users. Businesses who use Blackberry would love it.
Revolution, Then Evolution: The Titanium PowerBook G4 and the MacBook Air
The Apple II was a revolution. It took the computer out of the hands of the corporations and the goverment and gave it to the people.
The Macintosh was a revolution. It turned computers from mysterious boxes waiting on text-based commands to GUI-powered appliances.
The iPod was a revolution. It made portable music easy and fun.
But what about the Apple IIc? The Macintosh SE? The iPod mini? All of these devices — while important in their own ways — aren’t considered as important to the history of computing as the revolutionary products from which they evolved.
VLC Out For iPad
After 2 weeks of review, VLC for the iPad is eventually available on the AppStore! The release date is set to Tuesday, Sept. 21, so depending on your timezone, it should be available pretty soon.
Yet another example of Apple’s relaxed App Store rules in action. This is great.
Those Stickers on PC Laptops
When you buy a new Windows PC, as you probably know, it comes festooned with little (or not so little) stickers on the palm rests. There’s one for Windows, one for Skype, one for Intel, one for the laptop company, maybe an Energy Star sticker and so on.
[…]
A.M.D.’s research shows that consumers hate the stickers (duh). But they’re not going away, for one simple reason: There’s big money involved. Intel, Microsoft, Skype and whoever else is represented by the stickers actually pay the computer companies for the billboard space. That’s why H.P., for example, would tolerate gumming up its laptops’ good looks with crass ads. (Apple refuses to put Intel stickers on its computers, even though there’s Intel inside. In doing so, it leaves millions of dollars a year on the table.)
GV Connect on App Store
Google Voice applications have had a pretty tumultuous history in the App Store. At first, Apple approved them, and the people rejoiced. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, they were pulled, with “duplicating features that the iPhone comes with (Dialer, SMS, etc).” cited as the reasoning. The people were, understandably, pretty friggin’ mad.
Over the past few days, the developers of at least two such applications have been indicating that they’d been hearing good news from Apple, suggesting that the Apps would be making an Apple-approved, no-jailbreak-required return. Sure enough, they’ve just started popping up in the App Store.
‘Newton Never Dies’
On September 16
Jobs resigned as chairman of Apple Computer on Sept. 16, 1985, after losing a boardroom battle for control of the company with then-CEO John Sculley.
[…]
On Sept. 16, 1997, Apple announced that Jobs had officially been named interim CEO, or — as the company cleverly put it — iCEO.
If you want a good look into Apple leading up to Jobs’ ousting, I would recommend you read West of Eden by Frank Rose. Fascinating stuff.
On iPad Rivals and Stupid Blog Posts
“To-Be-Shipped” still seems to be the status on any iPad rivals. This means that the iPad is still the only device in its class, which is good news for Apple, and for the folks who own the device too. For the consumers, it means that there will still be developers focusing on making amazing apps for them to make their iPad even more useful!
While I agree that there are no real competitors to the iPad at this point, her article only points out two oddball clamshell devices that don’t stand a chance of doing well — or ever being produced, in Lenovo’s case.
Newspaper Subscriptions Coming to iPad?
John Boudreau at Mercury News:
Apple is expected to announce soon a new subscription plan for newspapers, which hope tablets like the iPad will eventually provide a new source of profits as media companies struggle with declining print circulation and advertising revenue.
In short, Apple may do to newspapers what they did to the music industry. I don’t see a lot of newspapers being willing to give Apple 30% of their profits from this, but do they really have much of a choice?