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Posts tagged with "iPad"

Meow Meow Happy Fight HD Review & Giveaway!

Japan has seen its fair share of crazed destruction through a never ending slew of anime porn and giant robots, but just when you thought lolcats couldn’t get any crazier than tackling Godzilla in the nether regions, Happy Cat appoints a legion of ramen noodles and rice balls to tear down Tokyo alongside zombie children and teen pop-star superheroes. If an invisible issue of glamour girl chasing you down the street with a barrage of homing missiles isn’t enough to get the blood pumping, fist boxing an overly ripe squid while dodging phaser lasers from a secondhand R2-D2 might do the trick. Or everything will just blow up in smoke, as usual.

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iPad As The New Flash→

iPad As The New Flash

Jeffrey Zeldman:

Too many designers and publishers see the iPad as an opportunity to do all the wrong things—things they once did in Flash—without the taint of Flash.

Everything we’ve learned in the past decade about preferring open standards to proprietary platforms and user-focused interfaces to masturbatory ones is forgotten as designers and publishers once again scramble to create novelty interfaces no one but them cares about.

While some of this will lead to useful innovation, particularly in the area of gestural interfaces, that same innovation can just as readily be accomplished on websites built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—and the advantage of creating websites instead of iPad apps is that websites work for everyone, on browsers and devices at all price points. That, after all, is the point of the web. It’s the point of web standards and progressive enhancement.

But the iPad supports open web standards. More than hoping in Apple’s tablet to save their magazines, I think publishers just want to make a shitload of money out of iPad apps. It’s that simple.

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iPad Makes Its Way to the Farthest Reaches of the Earth→

iPad Makes Its Way to the Farthest Reaches of the Earth

Pitcairn Island is currently home to about 60 people and is one of the most remote and inaccessible inhabited locations in the world, with its only regular physical connection to the outside world coming from a cargo and passenger ship that makes a total of eight visits per year to the island. Rare visits from cruise ships also bring occasional visitors to the island.

So color us a bit surprised when Andrew contacted us to let us know that he is now the proud owner of a 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad, the only one on Pitcairn Island. Andrew tells us that he made contact with a woman from New York who had arranged for a visit to Pitcairn Island on a cruise ship traveling from Tahiti to Easter Island and who asked if there was anything she could bring him. As an Apple fan with a 17” PowerBook and Power Mac G5 already in his possession, Andrew requested an iPad. Two months later, the visitor arrived and presented Andrew with his iPad.

Possibly the best iPad story I’ve heard so far. I mean, it’s here.

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Europe’s Trademark Office Confirms iPad Dual Dock Connectors?

We have already seen pictures of an alleged iPad 2 prototype featuring dual dock connectors, one on each side of the device. Today Patently Apple has found out that the European Trademark Office published a series of designs related to an iPad model featuring multiple 30-pin dock connectors.

The patent was filed in July 2010 and published three days ago. Both Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive are mentioned in the design credits, so maybe something’s really happening this time? I don’t know - just like every tech company, Apple files a lot of patents - but it’s interesting to notice that the design patent was filed in July, months after the release of the iPad. Perhaps Apple listened to user’s feedback? Read more

Noteshelf: A Handwriting App for iPad I Can Actually Use

I remember the iPad launch day. I also remember the grand opening of the iPad App Store - actually, we were the first ones to take a sneak peek inside it. Between the excitement and the geek dreams of a new device that would change the face of computing as we knew it forever, we didn’t really pay attention to the apps that were being submitted for approval. Six months later, it’s very easy to spot one of the best selling categories in the iPad App Store: handwriting apps. Note taking applications that let you write on the iPad’s big screen using your fingers or, if you have one (I do), a stylus. Penultimate was one of the first notable apps to sell zillions of copies.

See, I’m not usually huge on these apps. I’m faster with a keyboard, I never really got myself into a situation where taking notes manually was necessary, most of these apps don’t come with the proper exporting capabilities I need, namely Dropbox, Mail or Evernote. While they’re pretty to look at and cool to show off to your friends, I didn’t really find much value in them besides using them every once in a while to draw some random mockups.

So how on earth do I find Noteshelf worth a look? Read more

The New York Post Figures Out A Way To Offer Subscriptions In Its iPad App

We’ve reported about the issues publishers had to face when selling iPad subscriptions in their magazines and newspaper apps before. Apparently, either Steve Jobs wants to control the market by imposing rules because, you know, he’s just a bad guy, or publishers simply went against Apple’s own SDK, which doesn’t allow developers to implement external subscription models in their apps. The problem is, if the iPad is supposed to change the landscape of digital publishing you would expect Apple to change its rules a little bit and let News Corp. and Time, Inc. do as they want. Didn’t happen. Read more

iPad Gives Special Needs Kids a Boost→

iPad Gives Special Needs Kids a Boost

Before she got an iPad at age two, Caleigh Gray couldn’t respond to yes-or-no questions. Now Caleigh, who has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, uses a $190 software application that speaks the words associated with pictures she touches on Apple Inc.’s device.

“We’re not having to fight to prove to people that she is a smart little girl anymore, because it’s there once they see her using the iPad,” said Caleigh’s mother, Holly Gray, who said her daughter can use the tablet to identify colors or ask to go outside.

Incredible.

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