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iPad 2 Launch Rumored for Next Week; Here's Why It Won't Happen
A new round of speculation puts the iPad 2 unveiling less than a week away, at a media event detailing iOS 4.3′s new features and in-app subscriptions. MacNotes.de (via AppleInsider), a German Apple blog, reports that the iPad 2 could be the “one more thing” at that event, citing accessory industry sources.

It is likely that Apple is planning some kind of press event or announcement detailing iOS 4.3 features, including Personal Hotspot, and the availability of the new subscriptions feature (or enforced requirement) for periodicals, since at the launch of iPad newspaper The Daily, Apple VP Eddy Cue basically said as much. It’s a much harder pill to swallow that Apple would unveil something as important as the iPad 2 at such an event.

Apple admittedly has a flair for the dramatic, but it also fully realizes the brand awareness value of major product announcements. To tack an iPad 2 announcement to the tail end of an iOS 4.3 event would be the opposite of media savvy. No doubt it would net headlines, but it wouldn’t have the build-up or the anticipation that would otherwise be accorded such a major product reveal. Think about timing. If Apple wanted to unveil the iPad 2 next week, it could’ve spent this week stealing the wind from Google’s Android Honeycomb sails. It did this anyway with the Verizon iPhone pre-sales launch, and, to a lesser extend, with The Daily. And with the iPhone 4′s general public launch set for Feb. 10, there’s no way Apple is going to compete with itself for media attention by launching the iPad 2 only a couple days later.

No, while we may be seeing the equivalent of the orchestra’s discordant warm up before the house lights go down, Apple’s hype machine still has plenty of steam left to gain. And unlike last time around, Apple likely won’t give a peak behind the curtain before the show’s ready to start. The iPad was introduced on Jan. 27 2010, just over two months before its actual release on Apr. 3. There isn’t usually such a large gap between an Apple product’s unveiling and its release, but there’s a good reason Apple did this with the original iPad: there wasn’t any competition to worry about. Despite Microsoft making a big deal about tablets at CES earlier that month, when Apple unveiled the iPad, there were no competitors even close to able to go to market with a similar tablet device. Cupertino could’ve given itself six months to get the product out.

This time around, it’s a different story. There’s no longer any benefit to letting an announced iPad model sit in the minds of consumers for a couple months before a release. Apple has the luxury of leading the industry with its current model, so an early announcement would probably dent its own sales more than that of its competitors. The iPad 2 will benefit most from an announced, dedicated event with ample build-up, followed by a quick release of the device into the hands of waiting consumers, possibly through instant pre-orders and a public release a couple weeks down the road. What it won’t do, is piggy back in on the back of a decimal point software update that few outside the tech community will be paying close attention to.

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iPhone Pre-Sales Result in Record Day for Verizon
Thursday’s pre-sales of the iPhone 4 were a huge success. Both Apple and Verizon stopped accepting orders late in the day, with pre-orders sold out, and Verizon announced Friday that it represented the most successful first day sales in company history.

It didn’t take Verizon long to break that record, either. According to Verizon CEO Dan Mead:

In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history. And, when you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story. It is gratifying to know that our customers responded so enthusiastically to this exclusive offer – designed to reward them for their loyalty.

AT&T also sold out its iPhone 4 pre-orders in the first day of availability, but there’s a key difference here: Verizon so far has only been selling devices to existing customers. Sales to new customers don’t begin until next week, on Feb. 10, at either Apple or Verizon locations. That’s when we’ll see how many switchers Verizon attracts.

If you missed out on the pre-sale or aren’t an existing customer, you can walk into (or maybe line up at) an Apple or Verizon store beginning Feb. 10 at 7:00 a.m., order online starting Feb. 9 at 3:00 a.m. EST, or reserve one for pickup on Feb. 9 and go into a store the next day to grab it at an Apple retail location. If you’re thinking about getting one, be sure to check out what the web is saying about the device (and the Verizon network) before making your decision.

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How to Change Your Camera Import Settings in OS X
Every new Mac ships with iLife, which includes iPhoto, and automatically launches that application when you connect a camera. If you’d rather specify a different application for importing photos or video, or if you’d rather choose your importing app manually each time, here’s how.

If there’s any specific topic or issue you’d like to see addressed in a future screencast, feel free to let us know on Twitter (@theappleblog) or through our Facebook page.

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Analyzing Apple's Social (Media) Anxiety Disorder
Watching Apple in many ways is like watching baseball. When Apple is on, it’s like watching Roger Clemens throw a 20-strikeout game, or watching Pedro Martinez paint the corners, brushing players off the plate. When it comes to any sort of social media, though, Apple has all the accuracy of Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn from the movie Major League.

While Microsoft’s “Welcome to the Social” advertisements were often derided, it’s ironic that Microsoft, and not Apple, has a better history with social media interactions. Here are the three areas Apple tried to make a play with social media, and instead fell just “a bit outside.”

Sharing Music

I thought the Zune’s idea of “squirting” music, while poorly named, was a brilliant idea. How often have you been out with someone, talked about music and had the inevitable, “So, have you hear the new song by so-and-so? No? OMG, you gotta hear it” moment? The idea of beaming songs between iDevices is something I’d love for Apple to introduce. if Microsoft can make this happen, why can’t Apple? Sharing playlists via iTunes could be the mix tapes of the 2010s, and not in the way that’s currently allowed via Ping, where you basically just provide a list of things to buy for your friends.

Game Center

Microsoft’s Xbox division has nailed interaction between gamers. When I look at my friends on the Xbox Live Dashboard I can see what games they’ve played, how many achievements they’ve earned, and basically how far through games they’ve progressed. If they’re online, I can use the dashboard to start a game with them.

Game Center is a mess; it doesn’t really behave in the way I’d expect. For starters, it doesn’t seem to auto-detect what Game Center-capable games I have installed; I need to run games at least once to get it to register. If I open my friends list, it will tell me what games I have in common with a friend, but not allow me to compare high scores, achievements and the like. I can open up a game from my Games tab, but all I can compare is leaderboard information. Also, it’s not Apple’s fault, but a lot of games aren’t compatible with Game Center. It would be a lot easier to start a Words With Friends game with people already on my Game Center friends list.

It’s too bad Game Center falls as short as it does. Apple hinted when it first introduced the feature would be the center of the iOS game experience, but that’s not the case. Maybe iOS 5 will bring some improvements, but as it stands right now, it’s pretty much useless.

Ping… Ponged?

At least with Game Center’s early demos, it looked like Apple had its head on straight. When Apple talked up Ping, even the famed Reality Distortion Field failed to Distort.

The first problem with Ping is that it’s way too broad with music categories. Sure I like rock. but I’m more of a heavy metal guy, which isn’t an option. The second, and real, problem with Ping is that it’s one of the few things Apple does that really, transparently, is all about the money.

Even as a money-grab, it’s not very effective. Jim Dalrymple at The Loop has musical tastes similar to mine. When I follow him on Ping, all I see are the people he’s followed and his last purchases. What I’d really like to see, though, are all the songs in the Heavy Metal genre he’s ranked five stars, or metal songs he’s played recently. I’d be much more likely to actually buy those.

Ping also seems a natural choice for Genius integration. Why not use my Ping connections as an additional means of filtering results? In theory at least, it could provide much more interesting and personally relevant results.

Going Social

It’s a little weird that while Apple pays close attention to the overall user experience of their devices and OS, when it comes to any sort of social interaction, the company has been a gigantic failure; just look at how long proper Flickr and Facebook sharing took to come to iPhoto. The best explanation I can come up with is that Steve Jobs just doesn’t get social media, so all the social media aspects of Apple’s business aren’t subject to his scrutiny, leaving unfinished and poorly planned services allowed to ship. Now that Phil Schiller is a Twitter user and Jobs is taking some time off from steering the ship, maybe we’ll start to see Apple getting over its social media ineptitude.

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Going Shopping With Google Shopper for iPhone
Android users have had Google Shopper for over a year now. Google finally decided to port the app over to the iOS platform, and it became available in the App Store yesterday. We took it out for a spin to see how it performs in the real world.

Google Shopper allows you to search for an item by bar code scan, picture or voice. The results are identical to those you get by going to shopping.google.com in Safari's iPhone browser. The key feature of the Google Shopper app is the ability to scan without actually having to type anything.

In real world tests, the program ran great. Unlike similar solutions from Amazon's Price Check or Mirasense Scandit, the bar code doesn't need to be “aligned” in the cross hairs. The Shopper app nearly instantly recognized the UPC and began the search.

Book searches seemed to work best with Google Shopper. Not only did it search Amazon, but it searched a variety of online and local retailers. For example, it found the book The Price Of Everything: Solving The Mystery Of Why We Pay What We Do at my local Borders and reported it was in stock, as well as showing the price at other local book stores. One limitation is that it doesn't include smaller retailers, just national chains. Online reviews are also accessible from the search results.

Product search results were flaky and sometimes included a large number of similar items with identical names. To be fair, Amazon also suffers from that same problem. It wasn’t a total negative experience, though. I searched for some vitamins and protein shakes and found a few local places that carried the items I didn't even know about (and at a great price).

Unlike using Google's website, Shopper won't tell you online retailer's shipping charges to give you the total price. This makes it much less attractive for online searches where shipping and handling charges can often negate the price savings when compared to other vendors.

Considering it's free, it's obviously worth the price of download and could even save you some money. Hopefully, Google will continue to port its popular apps over to the iPhone, despite having a vested interest in hoarding them all for the Android OS.
1. Results using Google's Shopping search on the web
2. The app's home screen
3. Results from online retailers
4. Showing local results determined by location
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The Verizon iPhone 4 Reviewed: What the Web is Saying
Pre-orders for the Verizon iPhone 4 began early this morning (12:00 a.m. PST), and appear to be going smoothly so far. And with timing that couldn’t possibly have been coincidental, many tech news outlets yesterday pretty much simultaneously (embargo, anyone?) released their Verizon iPhone reviews. Here’s what the web is saying about Apple’s smartphone making the jump to Big Red.

John Gruber starts off his terrific review at Daring Fireball with a great summary sentence that could describe just about every other review out there: “It's the same phone. The only difference is the network. And Verizon's network is better.” The rest of the review primarily addresses network difference. He ends with a minor variation of the same starting phrase:

So let's slightly tweak the nutshell summary of the Verizon iPhone: It's the same phone. The only differences are (a) a brief period of Verizon exclusivity for the Wi-Fi hotspot feature, and (b) the network. And Verizon's network is better.

Like Gruber, Walt Mossberg finds that where the Verizon iPhone shines most is in call quality and reliability. Mossberg makes a great point, however, for those who spend time outside of the U.S.:

[B]ecause Verizon's iPhone—like most other Verizon phones—doesn't work on the world-wide GSM mobile-phone standard, you can't use it in most countries outside the U.S. AT&T's iPhone does work on this standard, and can be used widely abroad, albeit at very high roaming rates. In the midst of my testing, I had to travel to Hong Kong, one of the few countries where the Verizon iPhone functions. But even there, it only worked for voice, not data, at least in the areas where I was working. The AT&T model handled both voice and data everywhere I tried it there.

Over at TechCrunch, MG Siegler reveled in the ability of the Verizon iPhone to make lengthy calls without losing service, in case you had any remaining doubts that Verizon’s network is better for call quality. He’s also one of the few reviewers who actually addressed the iPhone 4′s antenna issues:

This Verizon version of the iPhone 4 seems to have none of the same antenna issues. Try as I might, using the "death grip" and every other grip I can actually do, I can no longer reproduce the same attenuation problem that the previous iPhone 4 model had. I death grip the thing, and no bars drop. More importantly, calls don't drop and data doesn't stop. Again, Apple won't comment, but problem, apparently, solved.

David Pogue of the New York Times tested the Verizon iPhone in five different U.S. cities, including San Francisco and New York, notorious problem spots for AT&T’s network. Pogue has almost nothing but praise for Verizon, noting that it dropped only one call during his testing, compared to many for his AT&T device, but he does point out that customers might want to be wary of getting into bed with Verizon:

Even if Verizon's network is the best in America, its policies and prices are still among the worst. This is the company, after all, that admitted to billing $2 every time you accidentally hit the up-arrow button. (Verizon refunded $52 million and paid the Federal Communications Commission a record $25 million fine.) This is the company that just eliminated its "new phone every two years" discount policy, that just cut its new-phone return policy to 14 days from 30, that doubled its early-termination fee (to $350 if you cancel your two-year contract before it's up).

Rather than heap praise on Verizon’s network, Macworld’s Jason Snell lauds the arrival of carrier choice for prospective iPhone buyers. His review is a thorough look at not only the Verizon iPhone, but at the iPhone 4 in general, so users new to Apple’s smartphone might want to start here. Snell’s best point is about how the new Personal Hotspot feature shipping with Verizon iPhones seems at odds with CDMA’s inability to handle voice and data simultaneously:

[I]f you're using the Internet and your phone rings, your Internet connection immediately drops. [...] If this was an issue that only precluded you from checking your e-mail while dialed into a conference call, it would be a minor annoyance. But if you come to rely on the Personal Hotspot feature—say, sharing data with a couple of colleagues while on a road trip—it's got the potential to be infuriating.

Brian X. Chen joined the chorus of those praising the Verizon iPhone’s superior voice quality over at Wired, but went into more detail about the tradeoffs the device makes regarding streaming media quality and connections speeds:

The AT&T handset on average scored significantly better in speed tests: 62 percent faster for downloads and 38 percent faster for uploads. [...] In real-world use cases, the Verizon iPhone's slower transfer rates are noticeable. Netflix streaming is smooth on both devices, but on the Verizon iPhone, compression artifacts are more apparent: The video stream is adapting to the slower transfer rate. Loading websites in Safari was faster on the AT&T iPhone, and so was installing apps.

So to qualify my original statement about John Gruber’s summary, he is probably right that for most users the information that the Verizon iPhone 4 is the same phone on a better network will suffice. But for those with special considerations, like globe-trotters and people who seldom if ever leave strong AT&T coverage zones, use their device primarily for texting and rarely for voice calls, or are heavy and demanding mobile media consumers and multitaskers, there’s still ample reason to pause and consider before taking the Verizon plunge.

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