One of the biggest drawbacks to Apple products such as iPods and iPhones is that the user can’t (easily) replace the battery on their own. While work arounds have been found, they void the warranty on the products. It appears that the iPad will be no different, however Apple has come up with a different system this time to try to make sure you just go through them to service the battery.
It seems that the iPad battery replacement FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) has been released, and instead of replacing the battery when you send your iPad in for a dying battery, the company will instead send you a whole replacement iPad. It will cost you $99 plus $6.95 shipping (pre-taxes), and you will be shipped a completely different unit. Now, do note that nowhere does it state that the iPad will be a brand new unit or if it will be a refurbished one, so I wouldn’t run around thinking, “Woo! Brand new iPad!” quite yet.
Now, no matter if it is a brand new unit or a refurbished one, this means you will not be receiving a unit with any of your personal data or applications on it, so you will need to back it up before you ship it off so you can sync the data back when the new one arrives.
It isn’t clear why Apple is opting to replace the entire device as opposed to just the battery, but that is the road the company is taking. Of course, this shouldn’t matter for a year or more as everyone who reads this site is of course following our advice of not ordering the first generation release … right?
During the 82nd Annual Academy Awards last night, Apple debuted its first commercial for the upcoming iPad tablet. There is one thing you can never say about Apple, and that is that they have bad advertising.
Lets just get the actual video out of the way.
If you had any question about what this device would do, you shouldn’t have that anymore after having watched that.
This commercial said in 30-seconds what bloggers have been writing about for five weeks now … if we just had an iPad to film we could have been done with this!
Honestly, we’re still saying you should skip the first generation, but we also know that most of you won’t listen to us, and this thing will be a huge seller. We like the device, heck, we’d love to have one, but we also know the second generation will be even more impressive, so why not wait a year? it’s not like this is a device you need, it’s one you want.
In the first round, Apple eventually came out and explained themselves, but thus far there has been no word on why they removed Wi-Fi detection apps. These are applications that actively searched for a Wi-Fi signal, but the ban does not impact applications that simply contain a database of Wi-Fi hotspots that can be accessed via the iPhone’s GPS or by entering an address on the iPod Touch.
Apple has offered no comment on why these applications were removed, although it may have something to do with the rule for developers about how an application may not duplicate functionality of the device, and the iPhone and iPod Touch do have the ability to scan for Wi-Fi signals. The question then would be why were they approved in the first place?
With two rounds of purging, should we expect more?
At least one analyst is predicting that there will be shortages of Apple’s iPad when it launches this month, but it isn’t someone with the best track record when it comes to predictions regarding Apple.
There is no doubt that Apple’s iPad is going to be in high demand when it launches later this month, but Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek is saying there may be some supply chain problems that will keep the inventory low, and possibly delay the device all together.
According to All Things D, Mr. Misek said, “We have…heard that the upcoming iPad launch may be somewhat limited as a manufacturing bottleneck has impacted production of Apple’s newest device.” The only problem with this information is that it seems Mr. Misek is the only one to have heard this rumor thus far.
The other unfortunate piece of the puzzle is that Mr. Misek is the same analyst who incorrectly predicted that Apple would announce iPhone OS 4.0 and the iPhone being available on Verizon at its January press event. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view and desire to get an iPad this month, this makes us take his latest tidbit of information with a generous helping of salt.
Whatever the case may be, our advice still holds to skipping this first release of the iPad, and waiting for the inevitable second generation.
It seems that Apple is taking an amazingly harsh and prudish stance against anything that can be construed as remotely “titillating” in its popular App Store.
According to PC World, the new policy that has taken effect in Apple’s App Store is banning anything that is remotely adult-themed in the iPhone and iPod Touch applications. While truly adult apps have never been allowed, the new rules ban anything that is even remotely suggestive, and this includes things like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue app, but by far one of the oddest is the fact that women in skating tights are not allowed.
You know, the outfits you are currently seeing in prime time television in the Olympics? Yeah … those.
ChiliFresh has a rundown of a conversation it had with Apple about the new rules:
1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic) PLEASE NOTE: The images below are as strong as our App got – do you call this “overtly sexual”?? I DON’T
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!)
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)
While it is quite true that there had been a proliferation of apps that skirted the adult rules by showing women in lingerie, these new rules really do seem to go to some extremes. I’m sorry, but I am completely baffled by the ice skating tights rule. Under this new rule you couldn’t have an instructional application for ice skaters, nor an app about ice skating news if you wanted to show a picture of a famous skater. What about an Olympics news app? Are they supposed to not show pictures of medal winning female ice skaters because I might get … gasp … TITILLATED! ”Oh yeah, you wear that medal … WEAR THAT MEDAL!”
This is one of the major problems with the Apple App Store: It’s their playground, and they can do anything they please at any time. Want to develop an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch? Go right ahead … just don’t expect it to always be there because they might decide it breaks some new rule you’ve never heard of.
The speculation can finally end, the Apple Tablet shall now be known as the iPad.
Steve Jobs took to the stage today at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco to announce Apple’s long-rumored tablet, the iPad. Measuring 9.7-inches, the device first strikes you as just a giant iPod Touch, but it appears to be a whole lot more than that.
With the benefit of a much larger screen, the iPad will be able to run nearly all of the current 140,000 iPhone/iPod Touch applications, but development is already underway for iPad specific apps that will take full advantage of its 1GHz Apple A4 chip and 1024 x 768 screen. Gaming seems to be the major focus from the comments made today at the event, and considering the success that category has already seen on the smaller devices, isn’t terribly surprising.
While the iPod Touch has been all about entertainment, the iPad will be able to run a specialized version of iWork. (presumably sold separately, but not stated at the event) This will allow you to work on spreadsheets, word processing and presentations from the device, with syncing presumably happening via the iTunes connection.
If you’re going to be working on documents, do you really want to do all of this on a virtual keyboard? Probably not, so luckily Apple will be releasing a physical keyboard dock that will place the iPad in a vertical orientation and essentially turn it into a laptop. Sure it isn’t going to have all the programs of a laptop, but with the number of apps available, it will be darn close. No price for this peripheral has been announced as of yet.
None of this is to say that the iPad is going to be all about work, it is going to play videos, music, movies and will also introduce the new iBook application. What iTunes has done for music, the iBook store could do for books as Apple has made deals with Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette Book Group.
The actual specs of the device are fairly nice, and show it to be much more than just an over-sized iPod Touch.
Memory capacities of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB
802.11n Wi-Fi
1GHz Apple A4 chip
.5-inches thick
1.5 lbs
9.7-inch screen
Bluetooth 2.1
Speaker & microphone
Accelerometer & compass
10 hour battery life, one month standby
3G connectivity for $30 a month via AT&T without contract.
The price was the factor holding people back, and while rumors had pegged this at around $1000, Mr. Jobs used that as a point to announce the pricing we would see in 60 days when this launches, and 90 days for the 3G versions.
In a move that is sure to leave Apple less than happy, Google has brought Google Voice back to the iPhone, it just isn’t as an application this time.
What can only be described as a schoolyard smack down has been happening between Google and Apple since last September when it was announced that Apple would not allow the Google Voice application to stay on the iPhone. What followed was a he said/she said fight between Google, Apple and AT&T over who said what and when, but in the end it did look like it was Apple’s call as the two companies are now finding all sorts of ways to annoy the other one.
Well, in what is sure to annoy the living heck out of Apple now is that Google has brought the Google Voice service back to the iPhone in a way that Apple can do nothing about realistically: they put it on the Web.
If you go to m.google.com/voice with your iPhone (and even an iPod Touch for texts) or web OS based devices you will have access to your Google Voice contacts, saved voice mails and have the ability to place calls & texts all through the browser. It isn’t clear how this will impact your minutes on your phone plan, but the texts do appear to be completely free. You can watch the video below for more details, or visit the Google Voice blog.
Apple has sent out invites to the likes of Engadget inviting them to a press event to be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco at 10:00 am PST on Wednesday the 27th.
With the tagline of “Come see our latest creation.”, the feeling is that this will finally be the announcement of the long rumored Apple Tablet, which some are also calling the iSlate due to some legal documents filed by the company. While there are no guarantees that is what is being unveiled next week, it would require a new product from Apple to have been developed with absolutely no leaked information coming out at all, a fairly unlikely situation.
Traditionally Apple has held events on Tuesdays, so the original assumption had been this event would be on the 26th as it was known Apple had reserved the facility for a few days at the end of the January. There has been no word on why the event was moved from the traditional day.
We will have all of the news for you as soon as it comes out.
Verizon announed on friday that it was lowering its unlimited calling plan, and not to be outdone, AT&T quickly followed suit.
Even with reduced prices, cellular plan prices in the United States are outrageous compared to other parts of the world. That being said, we should still be grateful for any prices breaks we receive, and due to Verizon lowering its prices on Friday, AT&T followed suit. The best news is that current customers will get the new pricing without having to extend their contracts and will receive no penalties for getting this new pricing.
While it is nice to see some sort of drops, you are still looking at prices like $1200 a year for unlimited voice and data on the iPhone via AT&T, and texting costs more on top of that, and is usually in the area of $2o a month. Although it has been proven that texting actually costs carriers nothing, they still feel the need to charge us each month depending on the volume of messages we send and receive.
So, yes, yay for Verizon and AT&T getting in a price war! Now they are robbing us slightly less then they were even a week ago! Make sure you have the cheapest plan you can possibly have, and hopefully you can save at least some money, but just remember that you are still paying some of the highest cell phone rates in the world.
iPhone and iPod Touch owners rejoice that a physical keyboard is finally coming out for your favorite device … but try to keep yourself in check until you learn the details.
Ion, a company best known for its USB devices, has announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that it is releasing a physical keyboard for the iPhone and iPod Touch, something users have been longing for since both devices first came to market. Called the iType, the device will allow you to snap your Apple product into the top of the device and type on a nearly full-size physical keyboard while your device is in landscape mode.
While this sounds exciting at first, and you may have images of catching up on your emails dancing in your head, the keyboard will only work while you’re in the iType application. You will then have to copy anything you write there and then paste it into the application you want to use it in. A definite nuisance, and one that makes you wonder if the product will be worth it once it’s released. No price has yet been announced which makes us even more suspicious that it is just not going to be worth the investment for being so limited in scope.
One of the biggest drawbacks to Apple products such as iPods and iPhones is that the user can’t (easily) replace the battery on their own. While work arounds have been found, they void the warranty on the products. It appears that the iPad will be no different, however Apple has come up with a different system this time to try to make sure you just go through them to service the battery.
No one is quite sure what is going on with Apple and its recent application bans, but something is definitely not right over there.
In a move that is sure to leave Apple less than happy, Google has brought Google Voice back to the iPhone, it just isn’t as an application this time.
Verizon announed on friday that it was lowering its unlimited calling plan, and not to be outdone, AT&T quickly followed suit.
iPhone and iPod Touch owners rejoice that a physical keyboard is finally coming out for your favorite device … but try to keep yourself in check until you learn the details.
