May 28 will be the launch date for the iPad in several countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Apple has already begun taking pre-orders in those countries. The actual arrival date for pre-orders through the mail is in question, as many in the UK have seen their shipping dates slip into June.
Prices for the iPad outside of the U.S. are slightly higher, leading to criticism by some. Steve Jobs himself has fired back, saying that the higher prices are due to taxes in other countries, though some of the prices are higher even accounting for taxes.
Back in the U.S., the iPad reportedly will be coming to Wal-Mart stores later this year. Apple has also started a new ad campaign for the iPad, claiming the iPad as revolutionary. Interestingly, the ad is remarkably similar to an ad campaign for the Newton in the 90s.
Signs are pointing to a late June release of the next version of the iPhone. These signs include reports of vacation bans for AT&T employees at that time, a second appearance of a new iPhone model prototype found in Vietnam, and changes in the date AT&T will allow subsidized upgrades of iPhones.
The Apple Worldwide Developer Conference will be held earlier in June, and it would make sense that Apple announces the new iPhone model there. The conference, which used to center on the Mac, is now more about the iPhone and iPad. The WWDC is more populae than ever, selling out in only 8 days this year.
You can understand why this hit XBox game never made it to the iPhone — it really needs a larger screen to do it justice. Well, since we now have an iPhone-like device with a larger screen, we also have Geometry Wars for iPad.
Need to quickly and easily crop a photo or image? Just open it up in Preview. Choose the Select tool and select the area. Then choose Tools, Crop or use Command+K. Save the file, or save it using File, Save As to save it as a new image. Handy for quickly making icons for Facebook or Twitter.
Now that there are more than a million iPads out there, you might want to make yours look a little different than the rest. Check out By default, Spotlight, the search engine in the Mac Finder, will search by content, giving you all sorts of results you don’t want, even if you know the name of the file you are looking for. To search by file name, you need to switch from Contents to File Name in the Spotlight toolbar. But by using Command+Shift+F instead of just Command+F you can bring up a search window that looks for file names by default.
Tired of the same basic tower defense game? Space Station for iPhone and Space Station HD for iPad adds an resource-gathering element as well as a space theme to this popular genre.
Apple launched the 3G version of the iPad last Friday, selling 300,000 units on that day, many of those pre-ordered. This put total iPad sales past 1 million units in just 28 days of sales. It took the original iPhone 74 days to hit 1 million.
Meanwhile, the landscape for competition to the iPad changed dramatically this week. Microsoft cancelled its plans for the Courier tablet computer. HP’s Slate tablet plans are also in doubt now that they have purchased Palm. The purchase is speculated to be about getting the Palm WebOS operating system to use on the Slate. Integration could push back a release. But other rumors point to a Windows-based Slate this year, and a WebOS version later on.
Several months ago Apple purchased iTunes-competitor Lala, and this week they announced they are shutting down the service, at least in its existing state. Various levels of compensation will be given to those with an existing balance or access to net-based music. Apple may be using the cloud-based technology behind Lala to improve iTunes in the future.
Game maker Valve Software will release Steam for Mac on May 12. This is Valve’s own system for game distribution and communication. This means many formerly Windows-only games will now be available for the Mac, including Portal, Counter-Strike: Source, the Half-Life 2 episodes, the Left 4 Dead series, and more. Better yet, those with Steam accounts that have purchased the games on Windows will be able to download the Mac versions for free.
So the iPad doesn’t have a camera. But your iPhone does. With Camera for iPad you can link the two of them together and control your iPhone’s camera from your iPad. It can also be used with an iPhone and iPod Touch. It works using either the local wi-fi network, or bluetooth directly from one camera to the other.
If you want to quit several applications at once on your Mac, an easy way to do it is to use Command+Tab to switch between the apps. This brings up the switcher interface in the middle of the screen, and you can quickly Command+Tab through applications. But instead of releasing the Command key, press the Q key to quit the application currently selected. You can quickly tell several applications to quit without ever bringing them to the front.
Apple set the dates for its 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco for June 7-11. The conference, originally centered around the Mac, will certainly have an iPhone and iPad emphasis. Apple has already announced and released to developers a new version of the iPhone OS used on both devices. It is expected that they will unveil a new version of the iPhone hardware during the conference.
The 3G version of the iPad, capable of connecting to wireless 3G networks, has started shipping to customers who pre-ordered the device. Delivery times indicate they should be arriving on Friday afternoon, just hours before the iPad 3G goes on sale in Apple Stores around the U.S. at 5 p.m.
There is more drama around the iPhone that was lost in a California bar and then later sold to the online publication Gizmodo. Despite being returned to Apple, a police investigation has started which included the seizing of Gizmodo editor’s computers. On one side of the controversy are First Amendment considerations that protect journalists from such seizures. On the other side is the fact that Gizmodo purchased what could be considered stolen goods.
In other news, Apple reportedly purchased chip design firm Intrinsity. That company is though to be the brains behind the A4 processor in the iPad.
If you work with cameras and video you might find yourself in the market for a camera stabilizer. But these can be expensive if you go for the name brand. Instead, look at former MacMost.com producer’s Jaybilizer products.
