Apple and Google are both trying to get into your home and in front of your television. Both are doing it a little different but are offering many of the same features. Do we really need something new?… a new remote control, a new device to connect up to our TV, a new piece of equipment to learn? I’m on the fence with this decision but am keeping an eye on both devices.
Tag Archive: iPad
Today, Steve Jobs got up on stage and announced iPhone OS 4.0. With 1,500 new developer API’s and 100 new user features, this looks to be the OS that we have been waiting for. Most of the time was spent going over the main seven “Tentpole” features. It’s about time Apple! I’m excited all over again for this new OS, due summertime… and a new iPhone too.
It’s hard to believe, but just today, I saw multiple articles about sites converting to HTML5 for the Apple iPad launch. It’s hard to believe that a device could have such an impact on the Internet. Last week it was the CBS.com announcement that they were testing an iPad version of the site to run their videos in HTML5. This week it looks like The New York Times and Time Inc. are preparing their sites to use HTML5 in preparation for April 3rd’s iPad launch. Rumors have it that NPR and Wall Street Journal iPad sites are also in the works, using HTML5.
The thin, light, and easy to hold iPad.
People were hyped up for the longest time before the release of the Apple iPad. Now it has officially been announced, but not released yet, and many of the same people are now complaining about it. “Why would I want an iPad when I’ve got a laptop?”; “The iPad is just a bigger iPod Touch.”; “The iPad doesn’t do enough to make it worth $500.”
Now I’ve got to remind you that the iPad is not out yet. Why does this matter? Because until it was announced it wasn’t available to application developers either. With Apple not releasing the iPad for 60 days, developers have some time to update their applications or create new applications to take advantage of the iPad’s new features.
New features? Yes, Apple just scratched the surface of what the iPad can do by showing us drop down menus, pop-up selections, and multiple panes in applications. iWorks was shown with new features not available on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Even the iPhone standard applications worked and looked better on the iPad with just an updated iPhone OS.
I saw an article today on Engadget about the possibility of Microsoft creating Office for the Apple iPad. We are talking about Microsoft Office here. Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Probably the biggest selling software suite ever on Windows and Mac OS X. What would this mean for prospective iPad users? How would this affect sales of the iPad?
Most people don’t know this, but Microsoft Word and Excel were released on the Apple Macintosh before MS Windows. Microsoft has been supporting the Mac for years and continues this support it with an end of year release of Office 2011 for the Mac. If Microsoft carries over this Office support to the iPad, this could mean even greater sales for Microsoft and a possible push of the iPad into the business and educational market.
Some of you may remember Apple in 1998 when they released the Bondi Blue iMac with great fan fare. This was the product that turned Apple around. Steve Jobs was making Apple an industry leader with new announced products every few years. There was the first iPod in 2001 that is now the best selling music player in the world. Steve added video to the iPod in 2005… you remember the U2 video playing on the screen. People were now watching their favorite movies on their iPod. The iPhone was announced in June of 2007 as an all in one device that you could use to access the Internet, read your email, play games, and talk with your friends. Apple took the phone with extra features and turned it into a device that does everything and also happens to be a phone. Google Search was being accessed more by people with iPhones than any other device or computer. Over 8 million iPhones were sold in the last quarter of 2009.
On January 27th, 2009, Apple did it again. They announced what could be the greatest device ever… the Apple iPad. It’s not a giant iPhone and it’s not a laptop replacement. It fits somewhere in between. Let me get the specs out of the way right here. The iPad uses an Apple engineered A4 processor chip running at 1 GHz. This processor is very powerful but at the same time, very efficient. The iPad battery will last for ten hours while using it and for thirty days when in standby. The screen is a 9.7 inch, multi-touch, 1024×768 color display. The iPad includes Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, and optional 3G data. You can get it with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of flash storage. The best part is that it is backwards compatible with any iPhone or iPod Touch applications, music, podcasts, and movies that you already own. Just sync it up with iTunes and you are ready to go.
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