Archive for January 27th, 2010

Apple's finally announced the iPad (Apple Tablet). It is perfect for tasks like browsing, email, photos, e-books and videos. It's a half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds (680g), with a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display and it's running a custom 1GHz Apple "A4" chip developed by the P.A. Semi team. The 10-hour battery life and a month of standby is quite exciting.

There will be devices with 16, 32 and 64GB. All iPads will get a 30-pin Dock connector, a speaker, a microphone, Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi and optional 3G, as well as an accelerometer and a compass. There's also a keyboard dock, which connects underneath in the portrait orientation. iPad supports up to 1024x768 VGA out and 480p composite out through dock adapter cables. There is a camera attachment kit that lets you import photos from your camera over USB or directly through an SD reader.

The device is managed by iTunes, just like the iPhone and iPod Touch. iPad can run iPhone apps: either pixel-for-pixel in a window, or pixel-doubled fullscreen. Developers can also target the new screen size using the updated iPhone OS SDK, which is available today.

The 3G version runs on AT&T and comes with new data plans: 250MB for $14.99 and an unlimited plan for $29.99 a month contract-free. Activations are handled on the iPad, so you can activate and cancel whenever you want. Every iPad is unlocked (!) and comes with a GSM "micro-SIM".

The price starts at $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model, so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) is $829. The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90.

UPDATE: The 3G version will also have A-GPS.

Today Apple announced it's tablet computer - it is called Apple iPad. The screen is gorgeous, tilting is responsive, and the device is insanely thin and light. Here are first high quality photos from engadget:

Here is our live blog from Apple's event:

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Engadget has received some very interesting photos that could refer to the Tablet from Apple that will be presented today.

Okay, we obviously can't confirm this, but we just got two very interesting images of what certainly looks like a prototype Apple tablet.

The device appears to have a very iPhone-like Maps application with UI elements consistent with the current iPhone. Obviously, the screen is much larger with a much larger viewing area. There appears to be a home button at the bottom of the device, and a Wi-Fi signal near the top with "No Service" indicating no cellular service at the time the photo was taken.

A placeholder on the signup form for Apple's iPhone Developer Program reads "Need to update this for the 27th launch.". This might indicate that Apple, as rumored, will announce a new version of the iPhone OS at today's keynote.

Site gizmodo published the results of the photoshop contest, where they asked users to design some new concept interfaces for iPhone 4.0. The image above rated #1. Here are the others:

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IGF announced the finalists for their 2010 mobile games competition. Last year's winners were dominated by iPhone games. This year's finalists are:

Best Mobile Game Design

• MiniSquadron (iPhone)
• Glow Artisan (DSi)
• Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (iPhone)

Achievement In Art

• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (iPhone) – unreleased
• Guerrilla Bob (iPhone)
• Zombie Pizza (iPhone)

Technical Achievement

• Stair Dismount (iPhone)
• SCVNGR (iPhone)
• Tumbledrop (iPhone)

Audio Achievement

• Lilt Line (iPhone)
• MuBlip (iPhone) – unreleased
• Zombie Pizza (iPhone)

Best iPhone Game

• Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (iPhone)
• Drop 7 (iPhone)
• Hook Champ (iPhone)

The finalists for IGF Mobile will compete for $5,000 in prizes. The results will be announced on February 8th and will be showcased at GDC 2010 in March.

Apple rejected Google Voice native application for iPhone. Now Google is launching a new version of mobile web app for iPhone OS 3.0 and higher. It uses the power of HTML5, so users can run it right from the Safari browser.

To get started, just visit http://m.google.com/voice in your mobile browser. For quick access, just create a shortcut to this URL on your home screen.