Recently I’ve had several people ask me whether they should buy an iPad now or wait for the second generation that is sure to come next year.  That is certainly a question that anyone that is considering buying electronic devices faces and there are already some consistent indications of areas in which the next generation of the iPad should improve on the current one. The current generation of the iPad is a great device for doing many things.  In fact, I’ve noticed that it made me a lot more productive at several tasks I do regularly and after a couple of weeks using it I discovered that...

Apple introduced today a device called Magic Trackpad.  This device is the equivalent of a MacBook’s touchpad but  for a desktop computer.  Apple’s Magic Mouse already allows users of desktop models to use a subset of the gestures available on the touchpad of a MacBook, but with the Magic Trackpad users will now be free to use all the gestures which are supported in the latest models of Macbooks. The gestures that are implemented in the touchpad of Apple’s notebooks are already very close to what you have in an iPhone or iPad.  This makes it easy for users to use the same gestures...

Regulators in the US have just included jailbreaking the iPhone in the acceptable exceptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act that made it ilegal to circumvent security measures in electronic devices. It the seems that the regulation indicates that copyright considerations cannot be used to prevent users from installing non-approved applications on their own devices.  This regulation just begs the question if it can be extended to include the iPod Touch and the iPad.  After all, an iPod is just an iPhone without the phone and the iPad is just a big iPod. ...

During a conference call LG’s CEO Kwon Young-Soo stated that his company is having trouble keeping up with the demand for iPad displays, despite the fact that its factories are working at full capacity.  It seems that Apple was not the only company taken by surprise by the high demand that met the iPad’s release. According to LG the supply of iPad displays will continue to be tight until early 2011.  Back in March news came out that Apple had contracted with Samsung for 3 million LCD panels for the iPad in addition to 10 million that had been ordered from LG.  It is possible that Apple...

In both Singapore and Hong Kong the demand for the iPad was very strong as it went on sale this Friday.  In New Zealand initial demand seems to have been weaker as there was no clear information available on where the device would be available. In Hong Kong many people coming into stores to try to get a shiny new iPad were disappointed in finding that the best they could do was to put their names into multi-page waiting lists.  It seems that Apple’s Hong Kong resellers have no issues with people who want to buy large quantities of iPads, as they don’t seem to have problems in dispatching...

About two days ago people started talking about Flipboard. Really talking a lot.  So much so that many people, including me, have found it very hard to try it out.   Just last night I noticed a tweet from the other side of the planet in which the editor of readwriteweb.com commented that he too couldn’t try it because Flipboard was over capacity. This problem should give you an indication of just how interesting a concept Flipboard really is.  In short, Flipboard collects information from your Twitter and Facebook (other Social Networks may be supported) feeds and uses it to bring all the...

In a conference call yesterday, discussing the company’s quarterly results, Apple executives confirmed that the iPad is still selling just as fast as they manage to manufacture it. Apple has been making efforts to increase the production of iPads, but as the device becomes available in new markets the general availability remains constraint.  At most locations, it is very difficult to find the exact model you are looking for, as the lower cost models sell just as soon as they arrive, with stores making lists of interested customers to be notified on availability. Apple’s results also...

Apple has confirmed that the iPad will be made available in nine more regions this week.  If you have been waiting to get an iPad you might finally get the chance, if you live in one of the following places: Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore. Of course, if sales do as well as in these areas as elsewhere you might have to be alert to catch an iPad on the store shelves.  At many locations it is still hard to just walk into an Apple store and find the exact model you are looking for.  At several locations only the most expensive 64GB 3g...

Apple has made available an update to the iPad’s operating system.  With this update the version of the operating system goes from 3.2 to 3.2.1, but its name changes to iOS to match how it was already being called in version 4.  iOS 4 for the iPhone has also been updated to 4.0.1. The iPad update includes updates to wireless connectivity, a fix for a problem that could cause video playback to freeze and other small fixes.  This update also adds Bing as a search option in...

A post on Boy Genius Report has got an immensely blown up picture of what the configuration screen of FaceTime should like on the iPod Touch.  Earlier today the habitual rumors about the presence of a camera on the next generation iPod Touch were circulating and this seems to tie in rather nicely with the configuration screen which is supposedly from the developer seed of iOS 4.1 which shows that FaceTime will use and email to identify the user for the purpose of placing video calls. It is not recent news that Apple has experimented with adding a camera to the iPod Touch in the past.  A couple of...

I stumbled on this interesting article on CrunchGear that lists a series of iPad would be competitors that either never made it to the market or simply didn’t live up to the expectations.  Going over the list I was reminded of a post that I wrote several months ago and which called for a reality check on the iPad competitors. Companies that think they can just graft a touch screen onto a netbook and consider it a tablet are living in a land of fantasy.  Any initiatives in this direction can only lead to ultimate failure and a lot of money poured down the drain. CrunchGear’s list includes...

Scott Forstall, Apple’s VP for iOS, has created a Twitter account.  So what?! Apple, as a matter of policy, discourages its employees from blogging or engaging in other forms of public communication due to its secretive approach to new products.  While I don’t expect the company to move away from that secretive posture that has become one of its most distinctive characteristics, but it might signal that the company will open another line of communication with the community, other than press-releases. Any additional information coming out of Cupertino will be welcome, but right now...

In April, just as the iPad had hit the streets I wrote a post about how accessories set the iPad a world away from the competition.  That was based on the number of accessories that had been announced in the two months that had gone by since the device had been first introduced by Steve Jobs. There was already a large number of companies making myriad models of cases, stands, bags, etc.  All of this was happening even before the device was available for purchasing. All this came back to mind today as I read a post on GottaBeMobile which described how the author had spent some time in an Apple Store...

With the new iPhone 4 Apple introduced a new video conferencing application that allows users to place video calls directly from their phones, through WiFi networks.  While people have been able to do video conferencing through several other means for quite a while, this is the first time that it has been made so easy on a device which not only is very portable, but is already in the hands of millions of people within a few weeks of its introduction. This widespread availability of the FaceTime application may have huge implications for future versions of the iPad and competing devices.  Recently...

It seems that several analysts decided to publish new guesses about how Apple’s sales did last quarter. Among these guesses was one which was a presented by more than one analyst and which suggested that Apple may have increased production of iPads to 2 million units a month. Apple is scheduled to introduce the iPad in nine new  countries this month and it would seem only prudent to continue increasing production as there is no sign that demand is slacking off in the countries where the device is already available and it is more likely than not to face high demand in the new markets. Just today...