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The big day for those who want to buy iPad 2 is approaching. iPad 2 will be launched this Friday, March 2011 at 4:00am Eastern time (just after 1am on the west coast) through apple.com and at 5pm Eastern time at Apple retail stores.
Best Buy and Target will also sell iPad 2 on launch day. Best Buy locations will start selling iPad 2 in their stores at 5pm Eastern time this Friday, according to an iPad 2 FAQ on Best Buy’s website. Target will probably follow suit with a 5pm launch as well, though that has not been confirmed.
If last year is any indication on waiting lines to buy an iPad, then you probably will want to line up as early as possible to make sure you can walk out of the store with an iPad 2 in your hand this Friday. Walmart and Sam’s Club are slated to sell iPad 2 as well, but an on sale date for those stores has not yet been set.
Best Buy and Walmart will sell iPad 2 on their websites, but both currently have the availability online as “coming soon”. We’ll let you know when they will be available.
All Things Digital put together a chart to help explain the iPad 2 data plans for AT&T and Verizon:
As with the first-generation iPad, AT&T is offering the same data plan rates – 250MB/$15 and 2GB/$25 with the prepaid option. If you happen to go over your plan rate with data usage, you can order another 250MB or 2GB plan. If you choose the “postpaid” option, AT&T will charge you another $14.99 for 250MB and $10 per 1GB of data transfer should you go over your monthly allotment.
There’s good news for those first-generation iPad users who signed up for the unlimited data plan with AT&T in April of last year, which was canceled a month later. Those users will be “grandfathered” in with the new data plan, according to Engadget, allowing them unlimited data usage for $29.99 per month.
The iPad makes its foray into the world of popular pub games.
There are plenty of uses for your iPad. You can use it to write and storyboard a screenplay. You can manage a portfolio of wedding portraits you’ve snapped and show them to future clients. You can theoretically use it as a coaster, although this would test the limits of your Apple Care warranty. But until recently, there was no app for the small subset of iPad users who stared longingly at their iPads and said “I really want to throw something at it.” Enter KL Dartboard, an app which turns your iPad into a classic English pub wall decoration. But you need to have an iPhone (and the free or “pro” Darts App) to use it.
The Dartboard syncs with your iPhone, and when you download the KL Darts app (there is a QL code you can scan to open the download screen immediately), the user can toss digital darts at the iPad, which stick into the onscreen target with a satisfying ‘thwump.’ Using the darts app, the user syncs their darts with the dartboard. Then, you aim your phone at the board, and jostle it forward. Your darts will sail at the board, and just like regular darts, you’ll either hit your mark, or, more likely, you’ll be way off. But unlike real darts, you won’t have any pinholes in your drywall after a drunken darts session with your mates. If you have the “Pro” darts app you can choose from any number of customized fins, so you can tell your darts from your buddy’s. There’s even a laser sight option that adds a small red dot on the board so you have a better idea of where your darts are headed, and kind of makes you feel like you’re a sniper who’s been tasked with assassinating Apple’s popular tablet on behalf of Bill Gates.
You can play 301 or Cricket, and the iPad keeps the score for you, which is nice. Especially if you’re allergic to chalk. However, all these features, though cool, are kind of worthless if the App doesn’t work. And that seems to be the situation. Maybe I’m just terrible at darts, but I couldn’t get them to fly where I wanted them to go. No one in my circle of friends could either. Perhaps a real dartsmith should have been called in to validate our concern…that the Bluetooth connection between your phone and the dartboard just isn’t all that accurate (or at least isn’t as accurate as throwing an actual dart would be), but again, there could be a fair amount of user error here as I’ve never actually won a game of darts in my life. But you’d think, with a laser sight, all you’d need to do is aim, but the aiming seems way off. I felt like a drunk sniper, unable to zero in on where I wanted the darts to go, despite having a relatively steady hand.
The tablets are coming! The tablets are coming! And in full force.
Steve Jobs mentioned at the iPad 2announcement event last Wednesday that 2011 will be the “year of iPad 2“. That may be true, but there are also a number of other tablets either currently being sold or slated to launch this year like Xoom and Galaxy Tab. All of this is giving PC makers concern as a report from Gartner is saying demand for PCs in the next 2 years will weaken.
Gartner lowered their PC sales forecast for 2011 and 2012 last Thursday. Traditional computers and laptops aren’t in as high demand as they once were due to the Apple iPad and other tablets.
Even though PC shipments are expected to rise to 387.8 million in 2011, a 10.5 percent increase from 2010, a dent in sales will still be felt thanks to the emerging tablet market. Gartner had previously reported an expected 15.9 percent growth of PC shipments for this year. A 14.8 percent growth for 2012 was also expected but that number was revised down to 13.6 percent.
Do you like to watch things explode? Boy, have I got an app for you…
Whether you’re waiting in line at the DMV or on a seven hour red-eye flight with a screaming baby, sometimes you just want to kill time by blowing stuff up. Enter, Demolition Master HD for iPad, a game that allows you to act as a dynamite expert in a world where the only reason buildings exist is for you to make them crumble.
This isn’t a bad thing. The physics engine in Demolition Master HD feels accurate. You place a few sticks of dynamite at various points in a steel structure, and then, when you feel you’re placed enough for the desired result, you detonate them. Either the building crumbles to the designated height and you win, or it doesn’t, and you lose. That’s it. Occasionally you must strategize because there are “out of bounds” zones on either side of the structure you’re trying to fell (maybe there’s another building there? No idea. It’s invisible.), and you have to avoid letting the building beams crumble into that zone. This is the hardest part of the game. In fact, sometimes, it’s too hard. But what’s a game without a challenge?
There a few different stages (Earth, the Moon, Mars…), and each stage has many, many levels. Never mind the fact that dynamite wouldn’t work the same way in space. That’s not a problem you need to concern yourself with. Your only concern should be demolishing buildings, and that’s what you’ll be doing. Every level. Over and over and over again. Which is to say, the game is ridiculously repetitive. Some levels are harder than others, but, all in all, you’re blowing up buildings. That’s it. The graphics feel a little rudimentary, and the change in backgrounds between levels or stages isn’t enough to make you feel like you’re doing anything different from building to building. It’s just “see building, place dynamite, hope for the best.” Maybe this is exactly what you want. But I got bored. Where are the boss buildings? The King Koopa of steel structures? Why can’t I be blowing up buildings in order to save a princess or at least win some kind of medal?
Forbes has gotten wind of news that indicates a major retailer in the US is expected to provide iPads to its on-floor sales associates. The source of the news says the unnamed retailer operates 1,100 stores. Considering Best Buy’s relationship with Apple in the past, and the fact they operate about 1,100 retail stores, it’s likely that Best Buy is the generous company in question.
The number of iPads to be distributed to these lucky employees could be in the tens of thousands.
This may boost Best Buy’s “Connected Store” program which began last year in some of their stores. The program’s aim is to connect customers with gadgets and allows for hand-on interaction with many devices.
Populating every Best Buy store with iPad-toting salespeople would be a boon for Apple, which would not only sell tens of thousands of devices for the purpose, but also have its wares in constant, high profile use across the country.
The benefits are less assured for Best Buy, which has struggled financially in recent quarters. That said, the aim of the Connected Stores is to make Best Buy shops more alluring destinations and to encourage people to purchase devices by offering as interactive and informative a shopping experience as possible. If an army of iPads helps Best Buy achieve this goal, then the gamble will be worthwhile.
The iPad makes its foray into the world of popular pub games.
Do you like to watch things explode? Boy, have I got an app for you…
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