Most often cited is the iPad's speed, and it indeed feels very quick and responsive, and generally comes off as a powerful tool compared with a standard Netbook, which can feel sluggish even when performing the most basic tasks.
Yet under the hood, it's obvious that a typical $299 Netbook has much more powerful hardware. It's Atom N450 CPU runs at … Read more
To all you iPad owners out there (or potential owners), I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the iPad is a fun, elegant, do-everything gadget that's easy to love. The bad news: you're going to baby this thing like nothing before.
Whether its a protective case, a Bluetooth keyboard, or an in-car charger for that summer road trip, there are dozens of accessories for the iPad that warrant consideration. Fortunately, we've thought of everything, and created a handy slideshow that runs through every conceivable iPad accessory on the market--from the … Read more
Before the launch of the iPad, Apple removed all the plastic and film screen protectors from its online and brick and mortar stores, even though they are among the most popular accessories for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple didn't seem to give any particular reason for this move, but as iLounge noted in an article, "One vendor speculated that the ban is an Apple marketing attempt to suggest screen durability, despite scratches that have damaged both plastic and glass displays of its products for years." Others have mentioned that because it's hard to adhere the … Read more
Gamers who use Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad are likely to be looking forward to Apple's "Game Center" network, which was announced among the other updates as part of iPhone OS 4.0. But what about the companies that are running existing social networks for the platform?
It's not the end of the world, apparently.
Ngmoco, maker of popular game titles such as Rolando, We Rule, and Touch Pets, also created the Plus+ social network. It's built in to all of its own titles, as well as a select group of games from other developers. Ngmoco's chief publishing officer, Simon Jeffrey, told CNET that the company "has anticipated this move from Apple for some time," and that it should bring a "cleaner developer and consumer experience."
But what does that mean for the Plus+ implementation that has been built into more than 75 titles? "Plus+ took a strategic shift in direction a few months ago toward being a service, and less about being a set of social-gaming features," Jeffery said in a statement. "Plus+ is all about empowering monetization and discoverability mechanisms for the development community, and we have clearly demonstrated with games like We Rule that these mechanisms work."
Discoverability was, in fact, one of the biggest benefits of using services like Plus+, but it's also something Apple plans to offer within its Game Center. Plus+'s implementation was to show you what your friends were playing, as well as show off games that had just been launched. According to the very few details mentioned by Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iPhone software, during Thursday's press event, both of these things will be a part of the Game Center framework.
So does that mean that Plus+ is going to be more focused on advertising and the metrics of what users are doing within apps? If so, that's another area where Apple has delved into with its iAds platform.… Read more
Optimus Prime might not have much use for the iPad, but if you want to get him, the rest of the Transformers, and any other comics published by IDW on your iPad, you'll have to download the IDW app.
Much like the Marvel Comics app, the IDW app itself is free and allows you to download several comics for free. Unlike Marvel, which gave users samples of some of their best-known characters, IDW's list of freebies is far less recognizable. IDW publishes mostly creator-owned comics, but its licensed properties, such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, Angel (from the … Read more
Apple's iPhone 4 release is due out this summer, and it will bring many long-awaited features to the platform.
For the third year in a row, Apple used an early spring event to give developers a preview of the changes coming to the iPhone OS. In case you missed our live coverage of the event, here's a quick summary of what Apple CEO Steve Jobs and other executives unveiled Thursday in Cupertino.
Multitasking: iPhone developers and users will finally be able to switch back and forth between applications without having to shut down the app entirely to enter … Read more
Apple wants how much for the portrait-orientation-only iPad Dock? $29? Sorry, but I'm tapped out after spending $500 on the iPad itself. What do you have in the $5-$10 range?
Nothing, of course. (Does Apple sell anything in the $5-$10 range?) Fortunately, if all you want to do is prop up your iPad for movie viewing, recipe reading, photo slideshow-ing, or whatever, you can buy or build a perfectly good stand for cheap. These five candidates cost anywhere from nothing to around $7. Take a look:
1. Think the kids will miss a handful of Tinkertoys? If … Read more
Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and a few CNET editors. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here. To get the key points from today's announcement, you can check out our summary of what got announced, in our story here.
We're coming to you live Thursday from Apple's campus with news about the iPhone OS 4 as it happens.
Maybe the biggest news is this: Apple is bringing multitasking to the iPhone. CEO Steve Jobs and his crew showed 12 apps running at the same time. But not all models of the iPhone will get multitasking or other upgrades. Third-generation models of the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch will be out this summer.
In addition, Apple is touting services including background audio, background location, and voice over IP. And there's more: a new folders feature, flicking between pages of apps on the phone, and the new iAd mobile advertising platform.
The newly released iPad, meanwhile, will get OS 4 in the fall.
When you bring home your first iPad and open up the box, everything is so pristine and pretty--so Apple. Eventually, as you warm up to the device, you're going to want to make it a little less "factory fresh" and a little more you.
Loading up your own media, photos, and apps is a good start, but there are also a handful of quick things you can do to really put your unique stamp on the iPad.
Whether it's slapping on your own home screen wallpaper or new ways to organize bookmarks in Safari, I've … Read more
Before many tech journalists even had a moment to sleep from the nonstop iPad coverage, Apple sent out a notice that it would be updating the world on iPhone OS 4.
First, Apple should change the name of the underlying operating system from iPhone OS to Touch OS. With the operating system running on the iPod Touch and now the iPad, it makes little sense for Apple to continue to call the software iPhone OS. Something like Touch OS would convey the larger message that Apple wants to ultimately send about its vision for the future of computing.
Second, the push-notification system could use some help. The current push notifications are essentially dialog boxes that pop up, occasionally play a sound, and then give you the option to ignore or launch an app.
The biggest problem with the current system is that messages tend to pile on top of each other and obscure the previous push notification. This is especially cumbersome in IM applications. The next generation of push notifications should probably closer resemble the popular messaging system for Mac OS X called Growl, especially when it comes to a device like the iPad, which has more screen real estate.
I hope to see a queue for push notifications, and I hope that Apple allows developers to push out more advanced notifications that are more like tiny HTML widgets that would allow users to respond to instant messages without launching their chat client, display images, or even background messaging that updates news applications with the latest stories.
Push notification was Apple's solution to multitasking, but given the speed of the iPhone 3GS and few practical uses of multitasking on a screen so small, Apple has steadfastly refused to allow third-party multitasking on the device. Rumors of an Expose-style multitasking interface are floating around on the Internet, and I am inclined to believe that Apple is finally ready to allow multitasking, if only to get the tech press to shut up about the lack of multitasking. … Read more
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