I haven’t posted to iPadWatcher for a while, but the temptation was too much when two of my favorite subjects, the iPad and Books were so much in evidence as they were this week.  When Apple introduced version 2.0 of its iBooks application for for the iPad with new enhanced support for interactive textbooks, a lot of people had a lot to say about it. I was one of them, but I decided to hold out a bit and better digest the news, before I started to write about it. Lets’s start with what was announced, regarding books.  Apple introduced both a new version of its eBook reading application...

A post about Gartner’s take on the tablet market and the iPad caught my eye today, on 9to5mac.com. It seems to have taken the folks at Gartner a good while to notice that it is really all in the software… While Android based tablets are considered to be expensive, the truth is that they are expensive for tablets that have very little software available.  After all, if Android and iOS applications ran the same applications, then having an Android tablet cost the same as an iPad would not be that bad for business.  It is bad for business because you pay pretty much the same, but get a...

This week a lot of people were saddened by the news that Steve Jobs was resigning as Apple’s CEO.  For many years Jobs has been seen as an integral and fundamental part of Apple and its driving force. While it is certainly true that Jobs was responsible for Apple’s turn around, he did it with the help of a group of dedicated professionals.  These people, who have been working for years with Jobs are part of his most impressive creation: Apple itself.  Apple is a company that works differently from just about every other company in the planet.  That is not simply the result of one...

Last year, when OS X Lion was first demoed to the public, I commented on the influence of iOS and the iPad on the new version of the Mac’s operating system.  Now that Lion has been released, and most people have had a chance to at least look at it, there can be no denying this influence. Now we should consider why Apple has let so much of iOS seep into OS X.  Does any one think that it was just due to a sense that these related systems should have similar behaviors?  If you do, I have some nice real estate on Mars that I can sell you at a bargain price. For many consecutive quarters Apple...

While there has been much commented on the introduction of Apple’s iCloud service, little has touched on its deeper implications.  Sure, iCloud is a replacement for MobileMe, and allows people to sync files between different devices, but what else does it do?  How is it different from MobileMe or other such services which are available from other companies? The most significant difference in iCloud is that it is being introduced not as a “drive” where you can save your files, but as a service accessible through a specific API, which will be present in every Mac, iPad and iPhone that...

Apple has just announced that will introduce volume business sales to the App Store.  The announcement was made directly to developers and was not yet available on Apple’s website at the time of this writing. This initiative will probably receive a warm welcome from iOS App developers as it will make it a lot easier for businesses to acquire applications for a wide base of corporate users. Even more welcome will probably be the possibility having volume B2B sales of custom-made applications.  This development will make it easier for companies to place orders for specialized applications which...

I do a lot of my reading on the iPad through applications such as Flipboard, Zite and Instapaper.  These applications provide an easy way for you to keep up with your regular news and blog reading, without having to navigate to all the sites individually.  These applications also allow you to share whatever you are reading through a variety of means. My personal favorites for sharing content are email and Twitter. While I tend to email articles directly to just a couple of close friends, I do so quite frequently.  Twitter is also a great means of sharing interesting news and articles, but with a...

This Monday Apple delivered a clear shot across Google’s bow: iCloud.  Apple’s new service, announced today, demote’s the Web browser back to the status of a simple application.   In replacing MobileMe with iCloud, Apple has done away with the Web-based interface for accessing your information online. All changes to your information are handled through the native applications, with all devices getting the changes almost immediately. The most amazing thing is that they really seem to have managed to make it all “just happen”.  (Actual hands-on testing pending…) You...

This past Friday, May 27th, the iPad 2 went on sale in Brazil.  While there weren’t many long lines of people waiting to buy their iPad as soon as the shops opened, it still pretty much sold out on the first day. Store representatives were unanimous in reporting that the 64GB 3G model was the one with most demand, but at the end of the day few stores had any model still available.  These same representatives were also mostly in agreement in stating that Apple made available a smaller supply of devices than when the first generation iPad was introduced in the country in November of 2010.  

During its scheduled quarterly earnings call, yesterday, Apple executives reported record numbers for revenue and profits.  Revenue for the quarter was $24.67 billion while profits came in at $5.99 billion, a growth of 85% over the year ago quarter. These numbers are the result of exceptionally high iPhone sales, with over 18 million iPhones sold in the quarter and a much smaller number of iPads sold than almost everyone was expecting.  Apple reported sales of only 4.69 million iPads in the quarter.  This number seems to be directly related to a constraint in production of the new iPad 2,  rather...

I had heard rumors that Research in Motion’s Playbook tablet would not have its own email and calendar client applications.  That you would need to have a Blackberry connected to it so that you could access these services.  This seemed just too screwy an idea to be true. It turns out that someone at Research in Motion didn’t think that this was so screwy and decided that it might be a good way to sell both a tablet and a smartphone.  Well, I’ve got news for these folks but this is a totally screwed up idea. I don’t really see that many people, but extremely hardcore...

Rumors have been floating around for some time about the possibility of some Apple products being assembled in Brazil.  These rumors got a lot more substance today as one of the two largest newspapers in the country published an article stating that components where already being shipped to the location of a Foxconn factory in the Brazilian state of São Paulo.  This facility currently produces computers and other types of electronic equipment for HP and Sony. If this rumor turns out to really be true it should drive down the price of the iPad in Brazil by a large  factor.  Such a reduction would...

Apple announced its 2011 developer’s conference this morning and before the end of the day it had already sold out. This year’s conference will have 5000 attendees. Many corporate developers will be left out of this conference because it sold out before they had the chance to secure approval to attend. While I was expecting that the conference would sell out quickly, it never occurred to me that it could happen so quickly. Just this afternoon I told a friend that he should register soon as it would probably sell out in a couple of days. Well, he won’t be going this...

As announced, Apple started the international release of the iPad today. Long lines formed in front os Apple Stores around the world, as Apple seems to have scheduled the start of sales at 5PM in the same way it was done in the US. Hundreds of people lined up in many stores in Australia where a lot of excitement has been building up over this launch. TUAW has gathered up some pictures of lines forming at Australian locations. It seems like the iPad 2′s international sales are off to a good start. Later today we’ll update with more information from around the...

WordPress recently released a new version of its Stats plugin which helps bloggers track how many people have read which posts in their blogs.  A significant change in the new version is that the charts that it displays are rendered in HTML instead of using Flash. The removal of Flash from the stats plugin allows iPad users to now have access to all information directly on their devices.  Previously anyone using an iPad was left with a blank area on the page, in place which should have been filled by the access chart. While I have no information that the folks at Automatic that write the plugin and...