When Apple introduced the new Apple TV yesterday, I thought that regardless of how interesting the device can be by itself, it will really shine as an iPad accessory.  The new $99 price tag helps to position the Apple TV into the accessory category as it is just about 20%  of the price of the most inexpensive iPad model. Why would the Apple TV complement the iPad so well?  The iPad is an intrinsically personal device, but sometimes you want to watch a movie with great special effects on a big screen or share it with someone else.  Having the Apple TV quietly connected to your TV will help you...

In an unprecedented move Apple has announced that they will be streaming tomorrow’s (September 1st) media event live. In order to watch you will have to be using a Mac with Safari 5 or one of Apple’s iOS devices. Directly from Apple’s website: Apple to Provide Live Video Streaming of September 1 Event What: Live video stream of Apple’s September 1 event When: Wednesday, September 1, 2010, 10:00 a.m. PDT Where: www.apple.com Live Video Streaming Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards....

Recently, an article published on Wired magazine announced that the Web is dead.   Quickly, several people came up with counterpoints in defense of the Web’s honor, or its very life.  Everyone that takes the time to read that article will probably have formed an opinion when they get to the end.  Either the authors are right, or they are wrong.  Right?! Reality it is as clear cut, or black and white as the authors painted it in the article.  Some trends grow weaker while other grow stronger but different trends don’t necessarily cancel each other out. For a long time now, applications...

I have lost count of how many hypothetical devices have been hailed as iPad killers over the past several months.  After the iPad’s huge sales success many of the companies planning to release tablet devices took a step back to reevaluate their possibilities.  Many decided that the products they were planning to bring to the market  weren’t up to competing with the iPad and they were canceled. Some companies decided to go back to the drawing boards and are currently working on new initiatives which might bring a new crop of tablet products to market.  The company which seems to be...

Since the iPad was first introduced people have been fascinated by the possibility of using them for taking notes.  The size and weight of the iPad makes it a great option for carrying around the office and into meetings.  Personally, I’ve always been interested in this aspect of the iPad and when I ran across a note taking application called Chapters I was immediately interested  in testing. Chapters seems specially well suited for taking notes for which a chronology is important.  The application gives special attention to the date in which a note is created and they are listed in...

Rumors have been flying around about a new iPad with a 7 inch screen for some time now.  Some people have gone as far as suggesting that this would be a second generation iPad which might be announced as soon as this September, when Apple will probably reveal its new iPod models. Without going into the merits of whether Apple will or will not, should or should not announce a smaller iPad, I will state that a smaller iPad would not be the second generation of the current iPad.  Apple is selling iPads just as fast as they can produced and I see no indication that replacing the current model with...

A great bit of news for iPad owners that are also movie lovers.  HBO Co-President Eric Kessler has stated that the company’s  HBO Go streaming service will be available on the iPad and other mobile devices within six months. Unfortunately this service will probably only be available for residents of the United States as is the case with NetFlix and other such services.  This leaves iPad users from other countries with whatever video content they can sync directly from their home or work computers. This information was published as part of an article on Bloomberg, but  iPad Watcher dug it up...

Despite the official unavailability of the new iPad in Brazil, a recent issue of Veja magazine – Brazil’s equivalent of Time Magazine – included an advertisement for Veja’s own iPad app. The same magazine also carried an ad for the banking services iPad app from Itau, one of Brazil’s largest banks. Brazilian consumer demand is strong: a wander through most airport lounges will reveal travelers who have managed to purchase their iPads abroad in advance of the Brazilian release. A friend described the clamor at a recent event in São Paulo, when just three days after the US...

Music and music instrument apps have always been popular on the iPhone and iPod Touch.  If a video I ran into today is any indication I would say that they are becoming quite popular for the iPad as well. A couple of fellows got together and produced a short, but very interesting, music clip where all the instruments where played on iPad apps downloaded from Apple’s App Store.  The video which has been nicely produced might just offer us some interesting insights on a possible twist in the future of music performances. I have embedded the video below, if you would care to watch it. The total...

In an interesting turn of events, Oracle announced that it was suing Google over copyright and patent infringements on its Java intelectual property. While this is not directly linked to the iPad or Apple, it is certainly of interest to those that are  following the moves by several major electronics and computer makers to bring iPad competitors to market. Sun acquired the rights to Java along with Sun in April 2009.  The first statements by Oracle seem to indicate that they don’t intend to try to force Google to stop using Java and Java derived technologies in Android, but rather intend to...

During the previous several months the iPad managed to kill off just about any tablet computer that was mentioned as a new product, but just about any company.  HP was the first to show clear signs about just how serious it takes the iPad when it dropped its plans for the  Windows 7 based Slate and acquired Palm for a hefty 1.2 Billion USD.  This can be a good move, if HP manages to come up with a good game plan for bringing webOS devices to the market. At the same time, Apple sent tsunami like waves into several other markets such as that of dedicated ebook readers which saw significant price...

An application called iMockups came recently to my attention as I was going over the drawing and diagramming tools available for the iPad.  This is an interesting application that is designed to let you quickly create sketches of interfaces for Web, iPhone and iPad applications. While I hadn’t really considered it before, the iPad does seem like a good option for conducting a one on one session for doing an early application sketch along with an application user.  In fact Endloop Systems, the creators of iMockups position it exactly as a tool for quickly creating the first rough sketches of...

In this third iPad wallpaper post I am including two totally different images which were both created from pictures taken at the same place.   The incredibly clear water you see in these images are from a cove by the old prison ruins at Porth Arthur in Tasmania. The island of Tasmania is an Australian state which I had the pleasure of visiting several times in 2006 and 2007.  These particular pictures were taken in January of 2007 when I was visiting the Port Arthur ruins with my family and some good friends. #1 #2 If you like these wallpapers feel free to save the full sized images and to use...

The rumor that a 7 inch iPad might be in the works for release by early 2011 started circulating today and was quickly picked up by most technology blogs.  It seems that the rumor started from a post on iLounge and spread from there. I’m not really sold on that idea, though. I can think of several activities, such as reading fiction, which I would prefer to do with a slightly smaller and much lighter version of the iPad. I would be reluctant, however, to give up the ease of use and productivity of the current crop of  iPad applications which go way beyond what you have on the iPhone and iPod...

Google seems to be having a good deal of success in getting all the companies that don’t have a  solution of their own capable of standing toe to toe with Apple’s iOS to adopt its Android platform for their smartphones.  The number of companies that are adopting Android to bring new solutions is continuously increasing over time and might grow even more as it looks like a much more viable operating system than Windows for the new tablets intended to compete against the iPad . No single Android based smartphone has sold in any quantity that could be remotely comparable to the number of...