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...

This is the second iPad wallpaper post, but actually the third image to be released.   This image was created from a picture I took during a visit to the beautiful city of Prague in 2005.  It shows a section of sidewalk pavement by the margin of the Vltava river, mostly covered with freshly fallen leaves. I have been using this image as the wallpaper of my own iPad for the past several days.  It provides a good background for your icons as the pastel tones of the leaves and stones don’t really conflict with the more vivid tones used in most app icons.  If you like the picture, please feel...

Recently I published a post commenting on the fact that Flipboard was an interesting App to check out, if you were able to.  As the application was released there was such an influx of people downloading it and wanting to use it that their servers were overwhelmed.  At that point I had watched their demo video, but had not yet been able to try out the App. Now, they seem to have gotten things under control, even though you need to go through a registration process that lets them have better control on the number of people putting demand on their  back-end services. A couple of days ago I finally...

Recently I decided to take some pictures I’ve taken of different places over the years and turn them into iPad wallpapers.   I will be making available some of these through iPad Watcher so that those that like to change their backgrounds every now and again can try them out. This first wallpaper was created from a picture I took during a visit to San Francisco in 2008.  It was part of a very nice looking  Japanese style garden I went to.  I’ve actually created two variations from the same picture and they both look nice in the background though I personally prefer the first. Variation...

Approximately at the same time that the iPhone 4 was being released, Apple released a new version of iBooks for the iPad with PDF support.  This was not the first application for reading PDFs on the iPad, but it brought PDF support to what is almost a built-in application for the iPad, despite the fact that you need to download it. I don’t imagine that many iPad owners skip on downloading Apple’s free ebook reader application. While  PDF support in iBooks doesn’t still have all the features that you can use on EPUB books, it is certainly a welcome addition and makes the iPad still...

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 Safari.

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...