Posts tagged with "iPad"

Dear Apple, This Is What I Want On The iPad

I’ve been playing around with my iPad for three months now, and it has definitely changed many things in the way I approach my job, Twitter, news and the web in general. Is it magical? Yes, it is. Is it magical enough to completely reinvent the way people think of mobile devices? Maybe, but it’s personal.

The iPad is a highly personal device. Even more than the iPhone, which is and always will ultimately be a phone, the iPad has no defined purpose. Sure, Apple says that it’s the best way to read emails, surf the web and watch movies, but it’s up to you to turn the tablet into your machine. A productivity machine, an entertainment one or a gaming device? Your call.

For as much as I enjoy using my iPad, there are some things I’m missing. Features, let’s just say. Whether it’s about hardware adjustments I’d like to see, or software updates coming in the next months, I’ve put together a list of “stuff I want on the iPad”.

Maybe you’ll find something that you want in there, too.

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Flipboard - Revolutionary News App for iPad Available

Sometimes a new app comes around and reinvents a genre. A few times (a very few times, actually) a new app arrives and reinvents everything you thought about a device. I’ve mentioned the “second wave of iPad apps” before: I think that a new generation of applications for Apple’s tablet is ready to invade the App Store to show everyone, not just its 3 million users, what the iPad was meant to be since the beginning.

I think that the second wave starts today with Flipboard.

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Mailboxes: It’s Like Mailplane for iPad

Mailplane is a nifty little app for Mac OS X which wraps Cocoa around Gmail’s web interface and allows you to quickly switch between multiple accounts, drag & drop from Gmail to Mac OS X’s Finder, pick up contacts from Address Book. It’s got many other additional features, it’s one of my most used Mac apps to date and it was one of the first applications I reviewed here on MacStories.

So when I heard that Ruben Bakker, the developer behind Mailplane, had no plans to release an iPad version, I was kind of sad. Ok for the iPhone, we have Mailroom there. But on the iPad? It would be perfect on it. With the larger screen, Gmail’s iPad web interface and the magical factor of the device, I bet it would turn out to be awesome. Still, no Mailplane.

Luckily for me, for us, and for anyone else willing to configure 5+ Gmail accounts in a single app, there’s Mailboxes for iPad. Is it Mailplane? No. Does it let you switch between multiple accounts? Yep.

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The iPad: So Magical, It Does 3D Now

The iPad is so magical it even does 3D now. Sorta. Aircord Labs have released a video showing an iPad that outputs 3D images visible to naked eye thanks to a specially designed projector that beams images into a pyramid-like screen thing.

Take a look at the video below. It looks like those images are real, floating in real space and answering to human’s feedback like clapping hands. I don’t know if we’ll ever see an iPad doing this stuff by default or if this technology will actually turn out to be any useful in real life (maybe), but just the fact that it’s possible sounds great to me. I mean, think about tweeting in 3D. Or arranging icons. Or moving notes around.

You get the idea.

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Apollo News for iPad - It Could Have Been So Much Better

I’m just going to state this up front: visual news readers are the next (and current) big thing on the iPad. Pulse was featured in the The New York Times, then made its way to the iPhone, too. My Newspapers. The Early Edition. Blogshelf, featured in many other blogs.

But the thing that surprises me most, is that people actually keep on buying these apps. They’re willing to try something new. They’re spending their bucks every single week for the new kid on the block of visuals news readers just to, perhaps, change their habits again the next week. I have the feeling this kind of applications are what Twitter clients were for the iPhone in the early days: a goldmine. Just like people discovered that tweeting from a phone (from the iPhone, especially) could be a highly enjoyable experience (sometimes even better than on the desktop), now they’re looking for a better, new way to consume news. It’s the natural circle of things: a developer comes around and reinvents a genre.

It is a few ones’ job to fine-tune it, just look at how Loren Brichter waited to develop his Twitter client, eventually acquired by Twitter itself.

Developers are coming out with these visual news readers. Should we give them a new name? Let’s say visual feeds, because that’s what they are now. Plus some adjustments to browsing and navigation, that is.

Can Apollo News claim the throne of the best new app in this new category?

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Griffin Releases Loop - Best Stand for iPad Yet?

I still have to buy a stand for my iPad. I have a leather case, but I didn’t buy the additional keyboard - so I didn’t buy the stand either. But, a few days ago I was thinking about trying a keyboard + Simplenote setup, and a stand would be absolutely necessary for that.

I think I’ll give a try to Griffin’s latest release, Loop.

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Apple Planning to Charge for iOS 4 on iPad? Spoiler: No.

Earlier today Stuff reported that, according to their source, Apple is planning to charge for iOS 4 upgrade on iPad. This is the original report:

“The top secret plans were whispered to Stuff by an anonymous source. There are no details of how much Apple will charge for the upgrade, but we’d expect in the region of £5.

Asked how sure they were about the forthcoming iOS 4 charge, our source replied, “Definite.” And we don’t think they’re wrong.”

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