iPad 2 Announced

     The original iPad was, like Apple said, a magical and revolutionary device. It was the first majorly successful tablet PC, and started the 2011 "Tablet Rush".
     At an event earlier today, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs announced the next generation of the iPad: the iPad 2. Steve Jobs was, or maybe still is, on medical leave. There had been reports that he had only six weeks to live, and pictures of him walking out of treatment very thin, so everybody was relieved when he walked on stage, looking just like he did a year ago.
     The iPad 2 is thinner, lighter, and has a faster processor than it's predecessor. It comes in WiFi only and 3G models, both of which are 9.50 inches high, and 7.31 inches wide. They are also both only 0.34 inches thick, making it easier to hold than the original iPad. Also, the WiFi version weighs 1.33 pounds, with a the 3G  version weighing in at 0.1 pound heavier. Both the WiFi and 3G models come in 16, 32, and 64 gigabyte versions.
     Both the WiFi and 3G versions come with Bluetooth, making it good for wireless keyboards. The 3G version is available on both the AT&T and Verizon wireless carriers.
The iPad's 9.7 inch glossy capacitive touchscreen makes playing with the iPad a beautiful experience. There was some speculating about the iPad 2 bringing a better screen resolution, but it stays at the same 1024 by 768 resolution.
     The iPad 2 comes to the market as the first shipped dual-core tablet with Apple's new A5 processor. This 1GHz custom designed chip gives high performance without draining battery life. Another improvement is in the graphics, which Steve Jobs says are now up to 9 times faster.

Steve Jobs at iPad 2 Event

     It also has the expected front and rear facing cameras. The rear facing camera is capable of taking 720p video at 30 frames per second, while the front facing, VGA camera can also do 30 frames per second video. These cameras are great for the iPad's new integrated FaceTime app. FaceTime allows you to videochat with other iPad owners. It also has compatibly for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Macs, so you can videochat with anyone in the Apple Universe.
     Despite the added features and slightly smaller body, the iPad 2 claims the same 10 hour battery life on WiFi as the original iPad, using 3G, the battery life should be about an hour less, at 9 hours.
     The iPad 2 also brings the gyroscope of the iPhone and iPod Touch to the iPad experience, which will greatly enhance the gaming experience on the iPad.

iPad 2 with FaceTime

     Some other new features include the ability to completely mirror the iPad's screen onto an HDTV via the $39 HDMI connector, the choice now of black or white, and a new kind of case.
     Last iPad, Apple did it's own case. The case was simple but efficient. Apple wanted to do another case this time, but one that wouldn't take away from the sleek design of the iPad, and also wouldn't add too much weight. They came up with the iPad Smart Cover.

            Smart Cover Closed

     The smart cover was designed long with the iPad 2, making it work extremely well with he device. The Smart Cover is a screen cover that attaches with magnets. There are magnets inside the iPad and on the cover, so it's easy to put on, and it also auto-aligns. The cover is made out of 5 flat attached by either Polyurethane or leather. It can be lifted up and folded to use as a stand for typing, or a stand for watching movies. The iPad also automatically wakes up when the cover is raised, and locks when it is placed back on. As an added bonus, the side of the cover touching the iPad screen is made of microfiber material, so the screen is cleaned anytime you open or close the device.
     A big thing Apple focused on in then announcement was the software. iPad 2 will run iOS 4.3 which brings some new features with it. 4.3 brings new AirPlay enhancements. AirPlay allows users to stream content from their iOS devices to an Apple TV or other compatible device. The update allows AirPlay from the Photos app, and makes streaming a lot easier, as it will scan your network for an Apple TV, so you don't have to set up anything.
     4.3 also brings Apples Nitro JavaScript engine to the iPad's Safari app, making web pages load a lot faster, especially ones with a lot of interactive JavaScript.
     Another cool feature in iOS 4.3 is iTunes Home Sharing. Home Sharing allows you to stream your entire library to your device over a shared WiFi connection. This seems like a cool feature, but if you ever have to leave your house, your content won't come with you.
     Apple also introduced two new apps, both available for $4.99 in the app store. These apps are iMovie and Garage Band. iMovie allows users to do complex movie editing, and offers cool themes. Garage band allows users to create and edit music, even without any musical talent.
     The iPad 2 brings many new features to a thinner, lighter package, and keeps the $499 price tag of the original iPad. Available on March 11th, the iPad 2 seems like a good buy for anyone who wants to spend $499 on a new device.
  
  
    
  

Mac OS X Lion: Available to Developers

     Quite a while ago, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple at that time, held a keynote titled "Back to the Mac" At that same keynote, he gave us a sneak preview of the next generation of Mac OS X, called Mac OS X Lion.

     Although Mac OS X Lion is still a while away, software developers signed up for Apple's Developer Program got an early look. OS X Lion is coming sometime in summer 2011, so the version of the operating system the developer's go is still in it's early stages. Still, what the developer's saw had some cool features.
     This new version of OS X brings the best features of the iPad onto the big screen size and more powerful specs of the macs.
     Apple integrates the elegant home screen of the iPad onto the Mac, and allows you to click the little black Launchpad icon on the dock a the bottom of the screen. Any open Windows fade away, and an iPad like grid of icons appear. This is where you can find all of your apps. The apps can be dragged into folders, which look and open just like the folders on the iPad and iPhone.

     Apple also apparently likes how all iPad and iPhone apps open full-screen. The new iPhoto, Mail, iCal, and Preview apps all can open full-screen. This allows you to concentrate on one thing at a time, or so Apple says. The apps can be changed to full-screen with one click, and open apps can be swiped through with multitouch gestures on the trackpad. The Developer platform also allows third-party apps to take advantage of the full-screen capabilities.

Launchpad

     A new and funnily named feature in Mac OS X is Mission Control. Mission control allows you to see everything that's running on your Mac, from a birds eye kind of view. It shows little icons of running apps, the dashboard, and the desktop.

    OS X Lion also integrates a new auto-save feature. This automatically saves your work, and allows you to revert back to previous versions of a document. Similarly, you can see all previous versions of a document in the order that you edited it.
     The new version of he OS also allows you to resume exactly where you left off when you restart your Mac. There is no more need to save and close everything, and then restart it all when you turn on your computer again.
     A few new features come in the new Mail app, Mail 5. Mail now supports conversations, which groups a conversation of emails in one group, rather than showing ten emails separately. The layout of the app is also redesigned for the Mac's widescreen. It shows the one line preview on the left side of the screen, as well as a full height preview at the right.

Mission Control

     The last main feature is called AirDrop. AirDrop allows you to share files with others wirelessly. To use AirDrop, you click the icon in the Finder, and you then see any Macs around you also using AirDrop. If they are in your contacts, you can even see their profile picture. To share a file, just drag a file to the other users profile. They can then accept the file, and it will start to download.

     Overall, this seems like a very exciting update to the Mac operating system. The fact that Apple is bringing it's Macs closer to the iPad scares some. The iPad is a very closed platform. Any apps must be approved by Apple to be included in the App Store. With the recent launch of the Mac App Store, it seems that the Mac platform is getting less and less open, giving Apple more control. The end user thinks that the closed platform of the iPad is great, but overall it gives more control to Apple, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

HP Touchpad, Veer, and Pre3

     At an announcement recently, HP announced three new products that will run it's webOS mobile operating system. HP announced two phones and a tablet, all of which look slick and seem to be good products.

    WebOS is a mobile operating system created by Palm. Palm was then acquired by HP, who seems to be doing a good job keeping the operating system alive. 

The webOS Card UI

    WebOS's unique cards user interface gives it an appealing look. The apps it comes with catch your eye and make playing with the device fun. 

    The Messaging client combines all the messages from one person into one big flow, so a message can be sent as an instant message, and replied to as a text. 

    The web browser mostly disappears, letting you browse the entire web page without having to worry about the URL bar getting in your way. With a smart phone's small size, this can be very important.

    The email client gives you a unified inbox for multiple email accounts. With many of us getting emails at our work and personal email accounts, the unified inbox can be really helpful.

     A really interesting feature can be found in the contacts app. Many of us have spent hours entering our contacts information into the phone, all of which is available on Facebook or other social networks. WebOS's contact app just requires you to enter your friend's name. It will download info from Facebook, Google, Microsoft Exchange, and more. 

     WebOS also gives access to the Amazon Music Store. This gives access to thousands of songs, all DRM free, which means that once a song is downloaded, you can move it and copy it to any device, without any complicated copyright laws getting in your way.

     A really cool feature is HP's Touchstone. The Touchstone is dock for the phone that charges the phone wirelessly on contact. There are ways to do this with other phones like the iPhone, but these require bulky cases. The Touchstone also changes to nightstand mode when the phone is not in use. Nightstand mode displays the time and notifications. 

     The webOS operating system described above will be running on all of the devices that HP announced at the event. 

HP Veer

     The HP event started with the announcement of the HP Veer. The Veer is a small, touchscreen phone with a full, slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Veer is only about the size of a credit card, has a 5 magapixel camera, and has a 2.6 inch touchscreen. 

     An interesting trend with the new smartphones is the lack of physical buttons. The Veer has no home button. The front is a plain, black surface. The home button is virtual. You just tap under the screen to go to the homescreen.

Palm Pre3

     The announcement then moved on to a slightly larger topic. The next product to be announced was the Pre3. It is basically a slightly bigger version of the Veer. The Pre3 adds a front facing camera, a 3.8 inch screen, and adds a 16 GB option. It has the same 5 megapixel camera as the Veer, but adds a flash.
     The last, and biggest (literally) thing of the event was the HP TouchPad announcement. The TouchPad is webOS's step into the tablet world. The TouchPad offers the same great webOS experience as the two smartphones, but makes it a bit bigger.
     An interesting thing about the TouchPad is that it straightens out the rounded corners of the webOS user interface. The card UI is gone, but the UI still looks slick.

HP TouchPad

     The TouchPad is pretty much a giant Pre3, but the extra screen real estate can sometimes really make the difference.
     The TouchPad has the same front facing camera as the Pre3, but offers a slightly higher resolution.
     Overall, these three devices look really compelling. They are missing just two slightly important things: price and release date. They give the general idea with summer or spring on the website, but no distinct date. I haven't yet played with any of the webOS devices, so I don't know how responsive they are, which could also be an issue. Another big issue is the app market. Apple has hundreds of thousands of apps in it's store, with android slowly creeping up behind it.
     With no price, a small app market, and no official release date, it's hard to know whether or not the devices will be worth it. We will have to wait for more info to come out before a decision is made.

To watch the actual event, click here.

     

The Daily iPad Newspaper Anounced

     The iPad has become increasingly popular, especially with news apps. When I looked in the Apple app store today, there were over 400 apps specifically designed for the iPad. That's a lot of stuff to read, and Rupert Murdoch wants to give iPad users the best.
     Today, at an event in the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Murdoch, along with Jon Miller, Jesse Angelo, and Greg Clayman, announced a new, daily newspaper for th iPad called The Daily. The Daily is a newspaper that completely rethinks news consumption for the iPad. The Daily takes the average newspaper or magazine, digitizes it, and adds a lot of multimedia affects.

Carousel on The Daily

     The Daily can be flipped through like a regular magazine. You can also browse articles with what The Daily calls "the carousel". This shows the front page of all of the articles in a carousel like way. Those familiar with the Apple MP3 players will recognize this as a kind of Cover Flow idea. You can then tap on an article, and it will be enlarged to full size and allows you to read through the article.
       You can also browse by category. The Daily is divided into six topics. These topics are News, Gossip, Opinion, Arts and Life, Apps and Games, and Sports.
       News includes the regular stuff, international news, important stories. Some stories include video or even 360 degree images. The weather section brings you completely away from a traditional magazine, and looks more like an app. It brings you very in depth reviews of the weather, while giving you the ability to tap on different icons for different things.
     Gossip has celebrity news and things like that. In the first issue, which they showed off at todays event, there was an article about two celebrities and their Twitter feeds. Using the special software that The Daily developed, the Twitter feeds were shown just under their picture.
     Apps and Games was a section The Daily did because they knew that their audience was one that owned iPads, and therefore many of them were interested in the app thing. Apps and Games has app reviews, along with photos, and a direct link into the App Store if one decides to download the app. Like a traditional newspaper, it includes daily crossword puzzles and Sudoku, which, unlike a traditional newspaper, can track your time and scores, and even let you play against others.

Weather on The Daily

Sports on The Daily

    The sports section offers a very unique experience and customization abilities. Since The Daily is a national newspaper, it needs some sort of way to customize it. You can choose the teams you want to read about, you can also see live scores, stats, and more.
    The Daily seems really great, but how much would you pay for it? Five dollars an issue? 1 dollar an issue? The Daily will be available for... 14 cents an issue! At 99 cents a week, The Daily gives you great value for your money.
    The Daily said at the event that it would eventually come to all major tablets, but the few two or three years are Apple's. The Daily also said that right now most of the revenue would be based on subscriptions, but they would like to eventually be 50% advertisement revenue and 5o% subscriptions.
    You can find The Daily on the App Store, on Facebook, and on Twitter.
    The Daily is free for the first two weeks, so if you own an iPad, you should definitely check it out. If you have an iPad and tried it out, please leave a comment telling us what you like or don't like about it.

Watch the Video Below for More Info. To watch the entire The Daily announcement click here.

Apple Pulling other eReader Apps? (Update: Apple Responds)

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eReader-An eReader is a device that allows you to read digital books instead of paper ones.

     Sony makes an eReader called the Sony Reader. As with many eReaders, Sony designed an iPhone app that allowed one to read the eBooks that they downloaded from Sony on their iPhone. This app was rejected by Apple for some unknown reason. 

     Apps are rejected all the time by Apple, but it's always because of a violation of one of Apple's rules. So far the Kindle, the Nook, and many more eReaders have apps on the iPhone that weren't rejected. This could simply be because the Sony app had some problem with the code that went against Apple's rules. It could also be that Apple has changed it's policy and is now not allowing third party eReader apps.

     Apple also has an eReader app called iBooks, which is the reason why one would think that Apple is rejecting other, third party eReader apps, and even may start to pull the old ones.

     According to the New York Times, Apple is changing their policies to no longer allow third party apps to sell content, like eBooks, inside their apps. Now, if you're worrying about games like Farmville, which allows you to buy coins from inside the app for the game, that's nothing to worry about, this does not stop app developers to sell through their apps, rather just requires them to use Apple as an intermediary. 

     The story seems true, as Sony spokesperson Steve Harber is quoted, "“It’s the opposite of what we wanted to bring to the market, we always wanted to bring the content to as many devices as possible, not one device to one store.”

     So what does this mean for other eReader apps? Although the other apps don't have an integrated bookstore, they do allow users to download already purchased content from other devices, something which, according to the New York Times, Apple said was against the rules. This would affect Amazon with it's Kindle and many other popular eBook apps. 

     For now, we'll just have to see what happens. The story seems very believable, and neither Apple, Sony, or Amazon would comment.


UPDATE: Apple responded saying that they had not changed any developer guidelines, but wants a cut of anything sold through their devices.

Staying Connected While on the Road

     It's a few days until I take a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I'll be there about three days, and have been thinking about how to stay connected. For my work, all I really need is a web browser, but some need powerful desktop machines that can do HD video editing or 3D rendering. You can't really bring a 10 pound desktop computer with you on the trip, so how do you stay connected without lugging around a giant PC?  

     There are some great, free tools to help. I use a great free remote access program called TeamViewer. TeamViewer is free for noncommercial use only. I don't know exactly what the term "noncommercial" means, but buying a licence for commercial use costs a crazy $749. TeamViewer gives you amazing capabilities for free, such as file transfer, recordable sessions and more. You also get a free iPhone and Android app ,both which allow you to connect to other PCs remotely. The android app is still in beta, which does have some serious restrictions, but expect a non-beta version soon.

TeamViewer  on Windows

     TeamViewer is pretty simple to use, but each PC has to download the free application. When you download and open the application, the first thing you see is a home screen with an ID number and a password. Next to it is a text box labeled "create session". To have someone remotely connect to your PC, tell them your User ID and password, they enter that in, and the other user is on your PC. It's just as simple to start a session.

     Once you are connected, you see the other one's screen. You use the mouse and keyboard just like you  normally would on your PC. At the top of the screen is a small taskbar which lets you record the session and even do VOiP (voice over the internet). 

     To connect normally you have to have a person at both PCs to tell you the password. You can set up unattended access by making a free TeamViewer account. You then give the computer a name and password and you're ready to go. 

TeamViewer iPhone App

     The iPhone app is also really simple and easy to use. It works almost like the desktop client, but has less customization options. It gives you a list of recent remote access connections, and a cleaner looking interface. The controls for clicking and scrolling might take some getting used to, but overall, the entire system is easy to use.

     The days of not being connected because you aren't home are definitely over. With always connected smartphones, WiFi all over the place, and even data connections in some laptops, you really don't have the excuse of "I'm on vacation." With tools like TeamViewer, you now can work wherever you are, for little or no cost.

Apple Mac App Store

     Over the past few years the idea of apps became very popular. You can now get iPhone apps from the iOS App Store, or Android apps from the Android Market (although you have to download them from your phone), you can even get apps for your Windows netbook with Intel's AppUp.

Mac App Store Running on a MacBook Air

     Apple, who kind of started the the app thing with it's iPhone and iPod Touch, is doing it again with a app store for the Mac. According to the Apple website, the Mac app store will be available for download on January 6th. It seems almost exactly like the iTunes app store for iOS, but the apps here are a lot more expensive.
     It seems that almost all of the Mac programs you can buy on the shelf at a computer store will be available for  download here. Some programs include iPhoto, GarageBand, Color Studio, and Home Watch.
     A similar program to the Mac App store exists already, called Bodega. Bodega can probably do almost everything the Mac app store can do, but must have a smaller selection.

Bodega 

     So what will the Mac app store give me that something like Bodega won't, and what benefit do I have by using this rather than going to the store and taking the software off the shelf? Why would I want to use the Mac app store?

Mac App Store Logo

     Firstly, coming from Apple, it will be a clean interface, a lot easier than surfing around the web for a download that might not even be there. Also, it will be a great place to find reviews, both good and bad, for the software.
    It seems good so far, but there a few reasons why you may want to stay away. If you have a slow internet connection, this is a bad idea. You don't want to spend hours waiting for a 1GB program to download. Also, Apple will probably have the same approval process here as they do in iOS. Apps may get pulled, and you might not be able to find the apps you want.
    So is this a good thing? For most, yes. But some may find themselves going back to the brick and mortar shops, and pulling that same old software off of those great metal shelves.

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