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August 30th, 2011 at 8:12 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Since its first release on the iPad, the Flipboard app has been one of those applications that has got nothing but acclaim and applause. The app works to aggregate your favorite twitter feeds as well as other social media feeds and gives them a digest sort of feel complete with truly breathtaking photos. The best way to tell when an app is at the top of its game is when other apps are constantly trying to tackle what they do and there are plenty of applications that have tried to do the same thing Flipboard does without the same success.
Now there are rumors that Flipboard will attempt to set itself apart from other aggregation apps even further by adding video from television shows and movies as well. Of course those who are getting all excited about the free Flipboard app bringing streaming videos should settle down just a little bit. While the app developers do appear to be looking into it, they say there won’t be any large scale testing of that kind of use until the end of the year so it’s going to several months before we have that capability to look forward to.
At the same time, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue says that the application would also like to be able to integrate eBooks into the application. Looking to get eBooks into Flipboard is another move that isn’t anywhere close to being on the horizon, but if the company makes moves in those directions, 2012 could be a very interesting year for Flipboard and its users.
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August 29th, 2011 at 1:27 PM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
There have been a myriad of companies releasing all kinds of accessories for the iPad and it appears that Logitech finally has leaped into the fray. While there are plenty of accessories with varying degrees of usefulness, one area where a company will be hard pressed to go wrong is with a keyboard. Logitech’s fold-up keyboard for iPad appears as though it is a higher end accessory that has its own stand and charges using a regular USB cable. Best of all the keyboard is made to be able to interact with the iPad’s smart cover without there being any real clashing between the two accessories.
Logitech’s other big new device is certainly useful, though may seem as though iPad users have seen it before. As Mike over at the TUAW blog rightfully points out; the suction cup joystick they have just released looks an awful lot like the same thing that Ten One released with the Fling joystick. Both joysticks are incredibly helpful when playing an app that actually uses a digital joystick because it suction cups right onto the iPad’s screen and allows a user to have a more tactile interface when playing certain games.
Perhaps Logitech believes that their name alone will make people forget that they are basically releasing a product that is already available. Perhaps there simply isn’t much to improve upon in the basic design of the Fling mini joystick. The Logitech joystick is currently selling for $19.95 a piece while the keyboard retails for $130.
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August 26th, 2011 at 3:16 PM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Has Apple bitten off a little more than it can chew as far as developing the iPad 3? Over the last few days and weeks we have brought you plenty of different reports and rumors about the newest iPad and when it will be released. More recently the underlying stories have been problems with developing the components in time for the planned release. Most stories have talked about how the Retina display that Apple wants included in iPad 3 has lead to moving the release back from later this fall to early 2012, but will another setback in regards to components push back the release further?
The A6 chip is another piece of equipment that is still being worked on and is also expected to be included in the newest iPad and is yet another reason for the release of the iPad 3 being pushed back. Originally reports said that the A6 chip would be done shortly after the start of the New Year but now a new report from CNET says that the faster chip may not be ready for mass production until the second quarter of 2012. The conundrum for Apple now is, do they still want to release an iPad 3 with better resolution but running on an A5 chip or do they want to wait until the A6 chip, which is reportedly going to have four processor cores (double the A5) and using the “3D” chip technology that Intel has recently begun trotting out? It is almost a certainty that at some point there will be an iPad 4 but would the company want to release two different models so close together?
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August 26th, 2011 at 9:29 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Despite being the first tablet of its kind on the market, new projections show that the Apple iPad will still hold the attention of tablet users through at least 2013 and possibly well beyond. A research firm known as IHS iSuppli has recently released updated sales projections of all sorts of tablet computers through 2015 and the company says that the iPad will still dominate the market for another two years at the very least. IHS says that the main reason Apple will continue its stranglehold is because of their innovation but also because the other tablet manufacturers simply cannot put out a product that is as high a quality.
The demand for the Apple iPad has actually grown to the point where the company is now projecting the demand for the iPad this year to reach 44.2 million units. That projection is actually increased by 500,000 over IHS iSuppli’s previous estimates. That 44.2 unit number means that Apple will actually hold far more than the majority of the market as that is 74 percent of all tablets expected to be shipped in 2011. If that percentage does hold true it would actually mean a 10 percent jump in total market share from previous estimates. The new numbers also show that Apple will continue to have the majority of the market one year longer than previous believed as the iPad was originally expected to be knocked off its perch at 2012.
“All the momentum in the media tablet market is with Apple right now,” said Rhoda Alexander, senior manager, tablet and monitor research for IHS. “The competition can’t seem to field a product with the right combination of hardware, marketing, applications and content to match up with the iPad. Furthermore, Apple’s patent litigation is serving to slow or complicate competitors’ entry into some key regional markets. With Apple lapping its competitors, many of whom are still struggling to get out of the starting gate, this remains a one-horse race.”
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August 25th, 2011 at 9:16 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
As the calendar turns to early fall those iPad users who live on either coast know that we are heading into a dangerous time of the year as far as hurricanes go, especially with Hurricane Irene expected to make landfall this weekend. While some may be content to keep abreast of any hurricane updates through the local news or weather channel the astute Apple user knows there is a pretty good app that will give them all the information they need.
Hurricane HD literally might actually provide more information than most iPad users actually need as the app tends to look an awful lot like something every professional meteorologist might use. There is a map layout that will show where the user is compared to the projected path of an incoming hurricane as well as just how close the storm is to their location.
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August 24th, 2011 at 1:53 PM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
In hindsight, it appears that people really should have been able to see this coming from a mile away. The release of the iPad as well as the ever increasing ability to make an app for almost every conceivable situation means that stores and restaurants starting to replace menus and cash registers and all sorts of other devices with Apple’s portable device should have been foreseen.
Originally it was only the smaller boutique type stores that found a way to use the iPad instead of a regular cash register simply because it didn’t make a whole lot of sense for the bigger retailers to make a commitment to the technology before they saw how popular it was going to be. Now there are reports that retail giants such as Lowes, Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters are looking at getting rid of the register and finding other ways to begin moving to the iPad.
Lowes has actually made the biggest move to the iPad with the announcement last week that they will be bringing as many as 42,000 iPads into select stores. By using the iPad, customers and employees alike can access different features such as checking the inventory of a store at the push of a couple of buttons as well as get a full color picture of a specific part. How-to videos will also be made available on the devices, helping the customers know how to use the products they just purchased correctly before they leave the store. Lowe’s move was a direct reaction to competitor Home Depot announcing that it would be bringing in 30,000 devices known as First Phone devices which are described as “souped up Blackberries.”
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