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- ePrint is a nice solution to printing from your iPhone
Filed under: Peripherals, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
The iPhone wasn't designed from scratch to print things, but it can be done. I've reviewed some solutions in the past, including one that required you to run a small print server on your computer, which then directs your print jobs to any local printers. There are also some apps that print photos directly to printers.
I've just tried ePrint, which has some limitations, but gets the job done without any print servers. There are two versions of the app: The free version, ePrint Free [iTunes link] lets you print contacts, notes (more on that later), photo albums, and even brings up the camera so you can fire off a snapshot and print it immediately. The paid version [iTunes link], meanwhile, is U.S. $2.99 and adds the ability to print web pages as well
Setting up is easy. The app will find your printers in a snap if your phone is in Wi-Fi mode, and you are running Bonjour zero configuration setup on your network. You can also elect to enter the IP addresses of your printers as well. If your printer is color, and you send color images, you'll get them in color.
There are a few catches, however. To print a web page you either have to enter a URL for it in ePrint, or set a preference to bring up the last web page viewed. When you go to print notes in either app, it doesn't mean from your Notes app. ePrint can only print from the ePrint Notes app, although you can still copy and paste any text into it and print away. That's how I test-printed an email, because Apple doesn't allow any way to print an email or anything else directly. After doing a 'select all' on an email, I copied and pasted it into the ePrint Notes app, and it worked just fine.
In my testing, the app found both my printers, a Brother laser printer and an Epson 2200 inkjet, in a couple of seconds and I was ready to go. If you are in an office environment with Bonjour printing, you should be able to print from most printers easily. The company maintains a support page with some more info and some videos here.
I've found both ePrint apps quite handy, and you can run it on either the iPod touch or the iPhone. If you want to make sure your printer works with them, try the free one first. It may meet your needs by itself, and if you want to print web pages as well, you'll know whether or not the paid version is worth the 3 bucks.TUAWePrint is a nice solution to printing from your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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IPhone - Apple - IpodTouch - iTune - IPod Classic
Переслать - In praise of the iPad: A contrarian view
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone
If there has been an editorial theme about the iPad over the last few days, it's been this: it disappoints. Pundits and consumers alike have been underwhelmed by the name (I mean, seriously, does anyone in the product naming department use feminine hygiene products? How many of these devices are going to be named "Max"?), by the physical design (Can you say "Un-Ives-like Bezel" three times fast?), by the missing features (no camera, no multitasking, still no Flash), and so forth. And yet, despite these seeming flaws, I'm wildly enthusiastic about the tablet. I think part of that enthusiasm is attributable to the fact that I'm a dyed-in-the-wool netbook user... and we are the actual target audience for the device.
Steve Jobs laid out the raison d'etre for the tablet right at the start of his presentation. Apple was going after the part of the market that wanted light computing: more than a phone could deliver and less involved than a laptop demanded. Ergo, the netbook. The list of things in the middle column of his main slide reflected the exact way that netbook users operate: checking the mail, surfing the web, enjoying some media. That's exactly how my parents use their netbook, how my friends do, how I do. We're coffee-shop, hotel, and passenger-seat netbook users. To that, you can add city commuters and airline passengers among those who have driven the netbook craze.
Netbooks are great. They are small, they are insanely cheap, and they offer just enough functionality to get a few things done without jumping into serious work that would demand a full-sized screen and keyboard. I know approximately three badzillion netbook users, and with very few exceptions, they are all Windows users.
I emphasize the Windows users part because nearly everyone filling that auditorium on Wednesday and nearly every blog author writing about the tablet is not, in fact, a primary Windows user. Apple events tend to draw Apple people. And for many reasons, I think that the Apple netpad (Isn't that a much better name than "iPad"?) is a better match for Windows users deciding between an Asus or an Eee or an HP or an Apple unit than it is for people who are living and loving the Apple laptop life.
That's because the new Apple nettop (and there you have another alternative that they could have considered) is not a laptop and it's not meant to be one. It doesn't multitask. It doesn't run Adobe's Creative Suite. Hell, it doesn't even do Flash video. It is, in fact, an oversized iPod touch. And for those of us who love the touch, who really feel that iPhoneOS had brought near-netbook mobility, the iPad takes that promise even closer to where it could be.
The win for netbooks isn't full computing power. Even though nearly every netbook on the market delivers that power, it's rarely if ever used except when the netbook is docked to a display and keyboard; to be frank, that's not the normal way most people use their netbooks. No, it's about convenience. Users pull them out, use them for a few minutes, and then put them away as they sip their venti mocha lattes. Netbooks are second computers for nearly everyone I know, not primary ones.
When you need to get real, serious work done, there are laptops and there are desktop units. And Apple makes some of the best and sells them at a premium. But the netbook isn't about providing the same solutions as a laptop. It's about affordable convenience and mobility.
Almost two years ago, I wrote the following on TUAW:
The computing world is changing. We're no longer tied to desktops. We move around, we take our computing with us. Holding a computer in the crook of our arms isn't just a nice idea, it's practical. When you're walking through hospital halls, sitting in on a University lecture, attending business meetings, or spec'ing out a project at a construction site, the tablet computer makes sense. If anything, the iPhone which has been pushed far beyond its original design specs, has proven that people want truly mobile computing. No keyboard, no standard screen -- true portability.
The iPad, with its larger screen, improved multitouch interface, and expanded software delivers on that promise: better movie screen space (especially on the train, in the car, or on the treadmill), better web browsing and e-mail reading, better viewing of photos, charts, and other data. And on top of that, it plays games and offers an eBook reader, not to mention you can use it for business presentations, either on the device itself or by sending video out to component, composite, or VGA-ready screens. And, not for nothing, a four-year-old can use it as easily as an octogenarian can. Literally as well as figuratively.
In comparison to a laptop, anyone who wanted the tablet to be an Air mini is going to be disappointed. But in comparison to a netbook? The iPad is made of win. The iPad delivers enough functionality to make it a a strong competitor to traditional netbooks. There is, however, that missing Flash thing. It's a big issue for most Windows users I know (possibly because they're used to the relatively smooth Flash performance on the Windows side, as opposed to the doggedly awful performance on the Mac side), as is the relative dearth of enterprise-ready solutions -- problems the iPhone has already weathered for two years. But somehow the iPhone has managed to find its market despite those potential pitfalls. The iPad can as well.
As I wrote in 2008, "Cell phones and tablet computers are all about freeing ourselves." Free yourself from the table, from the desk, and from the power cord. That's what the iPad delivers.TUAWIn praise of the iPad: A contrarian view originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - TUAW's headed to Big Nerd Ranch!
Filed under: Reviews, Developer
I'm writing this at the Minneapolis airport, waiting to board a plane to head for Atlanta. You see, back in 2009 we got a call from Big Nerd Ranch asking if we could send a blogger for a week, have him take part in the computer programming classes they offer there and report back on the 'developer boot camp' experience for our readers.
I couldn't pass up the opportunity -- I'm headed for the iPhone programming course now -- but I want to let our readers know up front that this week is on Big Nerd Ranch's dime. When TUAW receives a review unit or license, we return it or give it away to the readers after the review is finished. I can't return this one, though, and I can't give it away, as much as I'd love to.
There will be a standard disclaimer on the posts to follow that will reiterate the facts. On a personal level, however, I'd like to let you know that in the interest of as much objectivity as possible under the circumstances, I'll be letting the ranch speak for itself. I'll be doing interviews, shooting video and writing posts that focus on the content and the experience, rather than the quality of the courses or the advantages/drawbacks of the BNR approach versus other iPhone development training options. We report, you decide, right?I'll be sitting down for interviews with Aaron Hillegass (Cocoa instructor, CEO of BNR and author of Cocoa Programming for OS X), as well as other instructors, staff members and hopefully some classmates. You'll get a look inside (and outside) the facility, and a peek at what goes on behind the scenes. I'm looking forward to the experience, and I hope you all can benefit by coming along for the ride.
For more detail on TUAW's policies with regard to disclosure and conflict of interest, please see here.
TUAWTUAW's headed to Big Nerd Ranch! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Found Footage: Pee-Wee plays with an iPad! MekalekahiPad!
Filed under: Humor
I love Pee-Wee. Big Top. Big Adventure. The Playhouse. There is nothing the man (or, to be precise, the character created by actor Paul Reubens) does that he does not elevate to a fine art. And today, Pee-Wee meets the iPad. In this Found Footage from FunnyOrDie.com, Pee-Wee provides his usual impish insight on Apple's latest device. And, as always, the humor is aimed squarely at an adult (not child) audience. If PeeWee's not your thing, well, just scroll on down to the next post. But if you heart Pee-Wee the way that we do, you'll get a kick out of this clever iPad review.
Full Disclosure: It's a fake iPad, but the real Pee-Wee!
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.TUAWFound Footage: Pee-Wee plays with an iPad! MekalekahiPad! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPad: Investors shouldn't think short-term
Filed under: Apple Financial
No doubt about it, Apple stock has been on a wild ride since yesterday's iPad announcement. Investors were hoping Apple would deliver big, and while many Wall Street analysts believe they hit a home run - thanks in large part to not just the technology, but the price point of the device - the stock took a large dip today. On news of the iPad, AAPL closed at $207.88 yesterday. Today the stock lost over 4% to close at 199.29.
Why? Well, most of the time there's a huge sell off after Apple announces something new. A majority of the sell off is because people generally price the stock according to the rumor. It's the old "buy on the rumor, sell on the news" mentality. I've already stated in the past that I believe AAPL is headed past $300, and their latest earnings certainly seem to be pointing in that direction. But how does the iPad fit into all of this?
Frank Cioffi Founder and editor of Apple Investor News has written an interesting editorial for The Huffington Post about what the iPad should mean to investors.
Cioffi (who's long on AAPL) admits that while he's a huge Mac fan, he probably won't be buying the iPad because he's not sure how it would give him anything he doesn't currently have in his iPods, iPhone, or Mac laptops. He goes on to recognize that if one veteran Apple fan doesn't see the iPad as providing something his other Apple devices don't, it can't bode well for the short-term outlook for the iPad, which many investors are expecting to be an iPhone-like megahit. But then he brings up a critical point: the iPad is a slow-growth device.
Cioffi also points out one thing investors should be even more ecstatic about than the Apple tablet - Steve Jobs' weight. He's looking like he gained some (not a lot, but some) and IMHO is looking much better than last we saw him.Apple has just reinvented portable entertainment and mobile computing. No, it's not "magical," as Apple claims, but it is an elegant form factor that will engage niche industries to create apps for their businesses. It will likely become a hit with educators... just as Apple started the decade with the iPod, which grew slowly into an iconic device, I predict the iPad, after initially underwhelming investors, will also grow over time and indeed create a new device category. But it will take time... Apple is planning for the long haul. This company has moved beyond an e-reader and created an e-entertainment device.
But what say you? Are we going to be seeing dissapointing iPad Q3 numbers? Will the iPad eventually become the next "must have" tech gear like the iPod and iPhone? Tell us in the comments!
Disclaimer: This author owns shares in AAPL. Opinions in this post are those of the author only and should not be considered as investment advice.TUAWiPad: Investors shouldn't think short-term originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Netsize calls out App Store as most successful mobile platform
Filed under: Surveys and Polls, Apple, iPhone, App Store
Netsize unveiled the results of something called the Mobile Trend Survey 2010 at European mobile tech conference M-Days, and they say that 87% of industry professionals surveyed put Apple's App Store front and center when asked about the most successful platform for mobile software. Android came in next at 60% of people expecting it to find success, and then drops off into generic answers and lots of smaller mobile outlets.
What's perhaps most interesting is that while this announcement came out today, the survey was likely done before the official iPad announcement, and since Apple has made it clear that the App Store will play a huge part in the iPad's future as well, that's just more checks in the win column. Apple gets a lot of credit for its quality hardware (and rightly so), but it might actually be the App Store model (for better or worse) that becomes the most significant creation of the past few years.TUAWNetsize calls out App Store as most successful mobile platform originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Adobe speaks up about Flash on the iPad
Filed under: OS, Software, Internet Tools
The iPhone and iPod touch haven't run Flash natively in the years since their respective debuts, and it's pretty clear based on Steve Jobs's presentation yesterday that the iPad won't run Flash, either. When scrolling through the New York Times's main page, for example, where Flash ads or video might have been there were instead broken LEGO icons, big as life on the screen at the keynote.
Predictably, Adobe isn't happy about this, and is accusing Apple of "continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers." They go on to say that without Flash support, "users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web."
Let's work backwards from this. First of all, I'd be very interested to see where Adobe got those percentages. Apparently YouTube now accounts for a mere 25% of video on the internet? As for Hulu and a few of the other specific sites mentioned in Adobe's rant, now that Apple is in the business of selling content, exactly how is it in the company's best interest to provide access to that same content, through another company's platform, for free? And as far as games are concerned, once again Apple has this covered, through the App Store. Far from being limited, content publishers and consumers will merely have to adjust to a new method of publishing and consuming content: one that doesn't involve Adobe in any way.
I know anecdotal data is the worst kind there is, but in nearly a year of using my iPhone to connect to the internet, not only have I not missed Flash, I've been glad it isn't there. Flash's performance on Mac OS X is so abysmal that when YouTube announced an opt-in HTML5 beta to replace Flash, I bounced up and down in my office chair in glee. I can only imagine the bag of hurt that would be introduced if Apple let Flash run on its mobile devices.
If you want to know why Flash doesn't run on the iPhone, the iPod touch, or the iPad, why Flash will never run on those devices, and why that's a really good thing, check out this piece by Daring Fireball's John Gruber. One of the key points of Gruber's argument is that Flash is, by far, the biggest source of application crashes in OS X. Flash crashes so often that Apple's engineers went out of their way to create a new mechanism for running plugins in Snow Leopard; in 10.6, Flash runs as its own process rather than being lumped in with Safari, meaning than when (not if) Flash crashes, it doesn't bring all of Safari down with it. Considering Flash's poor stability and fan-blasting, CPU-hogging performance on the Mac, gee, why wouldn't Apple want it running on their mobile devices?
Want to see something that "imposes restrictions on content publishers and consumers?" Look no farther than Flash itself. According to the company's own (possibly made-up) numbers, 70% of games and 75% of video on the internet is all shuffled through one company's proprietary plugin. I don't know about you, but that sounds awfully restrictive to me. It seems like a really bad idea to let a single company have that much control over the creation and delivery of the internet's content, don't you think?.
With the iPhone and iPod touch we already have tens of millions of mobile devices owned by tens of millions of highly satisfied consumers, and not one of those devices runs Flash. With the advent of the iPad, we can expect millions more mobile devices to hit the market, and none of them will run Flash, either. Thanks to YouTube and vimeo, HTML5's star is on the rise for delivering free video content on the internet, and the App Store has gaming covered. There's no telling what the internet will look like in ten years, but one thing appears certain: if things continue as they have, Adobe will no longer have the stranglehold over video and gaming content that it enjoys today.
[Via Engadget]TUAWAdobe speaks up about Flash on the iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPad vs. Kindle: Which way to go?
Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Cult of Mac, Books
In my post yesterday I touched on the likely long faces at Amazon H.Q. in Seattle. The iPad is something I'm sure they wished hadn't happened, but of course it did, and I thought I'd take a closer look at the competition between the Amazon and Apple devices.
First off, if you were thinking of buying a Kindle DX, I'd say forget it. The iPad is a knockout punch to that device. At just ten dollars cheaper than the low end iPad, there just is no contest. The two devices are the same size (both are 9.7"), but the iPad has a color screen and can do a lot of things that Kindle just can't do.
Yes, the DX has free 3G wireless for buying books, but the iPad has 802.11n, and for most common usage, it just isn't that hard to find a place to hook up. Book prices may be a bit higher on the iPad, but they will be in color and multimedia with the promise of moving video, color charts and pictures, and so on. I also consider the on-screen keyboard an advantage for the iPad -- the keyboard on the Kindle is basically a waste of space.
As a travel companion, all you can do on the DX is read, although there is a rudimentary browser, and more functionality coming. Subscriptions are another Kindle selling point, but it's not a stretch to believe that Apple has something like that coming as well. Comparing the iPad to the Kindle DX, I just don't think there is any contest, and Amazon is going to be forced to think about how they are pricing and marketing the Kindle DX.
OK, on to the standard issue Kindle at U.S. $259.00. This decision is a bit trickier. It's about half the cost of the low end iPad, has a smaller screen, but does have built in no-charge 3G. That's mainly for buying books, as web browsing is pretty painful. Once again, books seem a bit cheaper on the Kindle at this stage, but I've noticed prices creeping up. Battery life with wireless off is about 2 weeks, and the iPad can never touch that.
For the immediate future, Amazon has far more books on offer, but that will likely change over time. If you have the smaller Kindle, I would not have anxiety about the iPad if you are mainly a reader. If you have the DX, I'd feel a bit queasy.
It's likely you'll be able to read your Kindle books on the iPad, just as you can on your iPhone or iPod touch, but they'll be black and white, with no rich illustrations. Amazon will stress that the iPad will be a great place to read Kindle books, but I don't think in the long run that's a cogent argument.
Looking out to the future, I think the odds favor the iPad. As an author myself (of a book about a sixties film producer), the idea of converting my dead tree book to something with short film clips and even musical examples makes me giddy. As a consumer, I'll want to get books that have those kinds of features.
In the early days of technology, new inventions tend to mimic the old. The TV was really a small movie screen, with radio quality audio. In fact, a lot of early TV was really old radio shows repackaged with pictures, i.e. Jack Benny and the Lone Ranger.
The Kindle mimics the book reading experience. It does it well, with a crisp display and an easy-to-use interface. Apple seems to want to take the experience beyond just mimicking a book, to create a new experience. Publishers will have to extend themselves to meet those goals, and so will authors.
In the short term, these gradual changes will be invisible, and I'll happily keep using my Kindle. In the long term, devices like the iPad will win us over and evolve our relationship with our media, just as the iPod did.
How about you? Second thoughts about a Kindle? Or a Nook. Or a whatever?TUAWiPad vs. Kindle: Which way to go? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPad SDK allows you to take photos and other insights
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, SDK
Turns out a camera in the iPad may have been closer than we thought -- Engadget has been diving into the SDK released yesterday (NDAs be darned, I guess?) and discovered that the ability to "Take Photo" is still hidden in the iPad's code. Of course, the device doesn't actually have a camera, but the fact that there's code written for one could mean that prototypes of the device did have a camera, and/or that we'll eventually see one in a future revision.
There's a few other interesting things sneaking out of the SDK as well, including the fact that "popovers" (those windows and menus that were popping up in the video yesterday) are listed in Human Interface Guidelines as iPad-only flair. That would make designing for the two platforms pretty different -- while it's certainly possible, as we learned yesterday, to run iPhone apps on the new platform, it seems like Apple is telling developers that iPad apps will have a very different feel than their smaller predecessor's versions. A year from now, the two platforms may end up being different markets entirely.
Update: The "touch to return to the call" bar made the trip to the iPad, too. Makes it more likely that this is just vestigial code.TUAWiPad SDK allows you to take photos and other insights originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Video of games on the iPad, and what developers plan to do with them
Filed under: Hardware, Software, App Store
Unfortunately, we weren't able to attend the event in San Francisco yesterday, but our good friends at Joystiq were, and they've brought back this video of Need for Speed: Shift [iTunes link] and a few other games running on the iPad. Not only can you see how the accelerometer works (exactly the same as the iPhone, basically), but you can see how the regular iPhone apps will upscale to full screen (via what looks like a small "button" in the corner) on the iPad. Of course, this video isn't ideal, but it actually looks better than I thought.
Hopefully, of course, developers will actually put in the effort to recreate their apps for the iPad's bigger screen. That's exactly what the makers of Flight Control have said they plan to do; that game will be "re-imagined" to work on the iPad. They talk about not only making use of the bigger screen space, but actually going to the "next generation" of their games. It'll be very interesting to see, as the App Store evolves with the iPad, what kinds of markets emerge. Will we eventually have a set of games that works best on the iPhone, and a set that works better on the "big" screen?TUAWVideo of games on the iPad, and what developers plan to do with them originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Was McGraw-Hill omitted from the iPad announcement?
Filed under: Software, Apple, Developer, App Store
Ever since the supposedly leaked confirmation on Tuesday about the iPad, rumors have been flying around about McGraw-Hill and its CEO's appearance on CNBC. Not minutes after posting it, people first assumed that Terry McGraw was in trouble with Steve, and then rumors showed up that the leak may have been done on purpose. During yesterday's announcement, McGraw-Hill was notably not among the iBooks vendors listed on the screen behind Steve, and more rumors suggested that they'd been pulled from the announcement in retaliation (though Steve did say that educational literature would be a big deal for iBooks). Rumors and hearsay, all -- so what's the real deal?
Digital Daily has the first official word from McGraw-Hill post announcement, and guess what? It's a denial. They now say that they had never worked with Apple on the launch, and that Terry McGraw didn't announce anything -- he was just repeating "speculative comments" that he'd heard about educational literature on the new device. Of course, they didn't really sound like that on Tuesday, but it's possible, especially considering that the original Wall Street Journal leak never mentioned McGraw-Hill at all.
So maybe we gave McGraw too much credit. Or not enough, depending on how you look at it -- after all, he was right about it being based on the iPhone OS, and right about iBooks, too. But unless you're a fan of conspiracy theories, odds are McGraw-Hill wasn't a victim of Steve's vengeance: they were never in the presentation in the first place.
[via MacRumors]TUAWWas McGraw-Hill omitted from the iPad announcement? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 Newspad finally arrives, nine years late
Filed under: Hardware, Cult of Mac, Internet
One of my all-time favorite movies is Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. At several points during the film, we see ill-fated astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole using a flat, iPad-like device. In one of the posters for the movie, astronauts at a base on the Moon are seen using this device (see image at right).
Those who read Arthur C. Clarke's novelization of the movie will remember that he described this device as the "Newspad," something that was used by people of the future (as envisioned in 1968) to watch TV and read newspapers. You can read the full description of the device after the break -- it's described as a newsreader, with two-digit codes for each article online, and a constant stream of information from the hourly updates on "electronic papers."
Of course, we don't have two-digit references to articles; we simply need to tap on them to bring them up. We do need to know the "codes" for the world's major electronic papers; we refer to them as URLs or specific apps. But like many things Clarke foresaw in his lifetime of writing science fiction, the Newspad has finally become reality in the form of Apple's iPad.
I think Arthur would be proud.
When he tired of official reports and memoranda and minutes, he would plug his foolscap-sized Newspad into the ship's information circuit and scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up the world's major electronic papers; he knew the codes of the more important ones by heart, and had no need to consult the list on the back of his pad. Switching to the display unit's short-term memory, he would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the items that interested him.
Each had its own two-digit reference; when he punched that, the postage-stamp-sized rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the screen and he could read it with comfort. When he had finished, he would flash back to the complete page and select a new subject for detailed examination.
Floyd sometimes wondered if the Newspad, and the fantastic technology behind it, was the last word in man's quest for perfect communications. Here he was, far out in space, speeding away from Earth at thousands of miles an hour, yet in a few milliseconds he could see the headlines of any newspaper he pleased. (That very word "newspaper," of course, was an anachronistic hangover into the age of electronics.) The text was updated automatically on every hour; even if one read only the English versions, one could spend an entire lifetime doing nothing but absorbing the ever-changing flow of information from the news satellites.
It was hard to imagine how the system could be improved or made more convenient. But sooner or later, Floyd guessed, it would pass away, to be replaced by something as unimaginable as the Newspad itself would have been to Caxton or Gutenberg.
From 2001: A Space Odyssey , by Arthur C. Clarke.
Published by Del Rey in 1968
TUAWArthur C. Clarke's 2001 Newspad finally arrives, nine years late originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPad still pending FCC approval, not a problem
A few of our readers have pointed out this interesting little blurb currently found down at the bottom of the iPad's specs page:
Did Apple just announce a "magical and revolutionary product" that they can't yet sell? Yes and no. Yes, given that the 3G iPads will connect to the cell phone network, the FCC will have to approve them. But will that be a problem? Probably not. As our own Mike Rose would say, Apple prefers to announce their products themselves, and they'd rather not have them leaked by a government filing (since any applications filed with the FCC would find their way out to, well, this very Unofficial Apple Weblog).This device has not yet been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.
So it's no surprise Apple has waited until after their announcement to secure FCC approval, and it's very likely that they'll get that approval long before the 90 days until the 3G iPad's release are up. That notice on the page is a formality, and even if the FCC has an issue with the iPad, Apple has plenty of time to fix it.TUAWiPad still pending FCC approval, not a problem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iBooks could be US-only at launch
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware
Apple Australia has published iPad content to their site, and some keen-eyed observers have noticed what's missing.
The list of features explained on the site includes much of what we saw yesterday -- Safari, Mail, YouTube, video ... all but iBooks and the iBookstore. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see a footnote stating that iBooks will be U.S.-only at launch.
In the meantime, all iPhone/iPod touch apps will run on the iPad, international uses can grab the Kindle app [Free - iTunes link] (the irony is not lost on us), Classics [Free - iTunes link] or any of the other ereaders in the App Store [iTunes link].
Of course, we're a few months out of launch so things might change. But we're not holding our breath.
[Via Engadget]
TUAWiBooks could be US-only at launch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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