Facebook finally launches iPad app

Facebook has finally taken the wraps off its long-awaited app for the iPad, extending its presence in mobile devices.

The app features a new layout for the site, with games, apps, groups and lists in a left-hand menu, and messages and notifications at the top of every screen.

It is available in English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

Facebook's iPhone app is the most downloaded iPhone app to date and with mobile usage of the social network rising, its move to tablet devices has been hotly anticipated.

Source: MediaWeek

Friskies have created iPad games for cats. Screen protectors not included.

Friskies, the cat food brand has introduced a trio of iPad apps made just for the most precious of household felines. Via Cat Fishing, Tasty Treasures Hunt and Party Mix-Up, iPad owners can alternatively swoon and gasp in sheer horror as their cats bring claw after sharpened claw to their iPad screens. It's half cute / half horror-inducing to watch.

iPad 2 to be launched next week on Wednesday 2nd March

The rumours have been floating around the web for the last week or so that Apple will be holding a press event on March 2nd to announce details of the iPad 2. Well today Apple have gone and confirmed those rumours and have sent out invites for the official press event entitled ” Come see what 2011 will be the year of”

It’s fairly obvious to assume from the picture that it will be an iPad that’s going to be the focus of the event. It's not clear as to whether or not the iPad will actually be available on March 2nd or not, but one things for certain we will at last find out whats going to be in the iPad 2. It will be interesting to see if its any smaller in size as rumours have suggested and Apple will almost certainly want to be putting at least one if not two cameras in there if they want to keep up with the competition.

All will be revealed next Wednesday… the event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco at 10:00am where Apple have launched products before.

The Retro Pencil Stylus

This is an easy-to-hold faux writing apparatus (£7.50) that works on all touch-screen devices. Brilliant for glove-wearing / fingerprint-phobic iPaddies and iPhoners. Smudgy fingerprints are no more. Buy it here.

Steve Jobs vs. Dragons' Den

Nice idea for a spoof but there are some classic Dragon's Den quotes and this could have been even funnier! Still worth a watch...

Pantone iPhone/iPad Cases

This would indeed be the best case scenario: You take your favourite gadget and dress it up in with your favourite colour. Monaco-based Case Scenario has linked up with Pantone and as a result, they are now able to make this scenario a reality.

In their Case Scenario Pantone Universe collection for Fall and Winter 2010-2011, this means specifically that you can dress your iPhone 4 and iPad in a protective case in a limited range of PANTONE® colours.

For iPhone 4, there are nine colours ranging from the deep Pantone Blue 7462 to the juicy Pantone Pink 226. For iPad, the Fall fashion colours are Pantone Black, Pantone Cool Grey, Pantone Blue 7462 and Pantone Red 711.

Source: The Coolhunter

Screw the iPad, I'll have an iTable!

Mr. President, sign my iPad

BlackBerry planning iPad rival

Research In Motion, Canadian maker of BlackBerrys, is rumoured to be working on a rival to the iPad, dubbed the BlackPad by tech watchers.

The device is scheduled for launch in November, according to reports, and will be roughly the same size as Apple's device. RIM has already acquired the rights to the blackpad.com internet domain.

Users will be able to connect their BlackPad to the internet using the wireless connection of their mobile phone, rather than having to pay separately for 3G network access as users of the iPad must.

The introduction of the iPad, which hit UK stores in May, has reinvigorated the market for so-called tablet computers. In its recent results, Apple said it has sold 3.27m worldwide. But Steve Jobs' Californian design empire is unlikely to have the market all to itself for long.

Several computer manufacturers are planning tablet devices based on Google's rival Android software, which is already gaining a major foothold in the mobile phone market.

Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy tablet before the end of next month while LG plans to introduce one under its Optimus brand by Christmas.

Source: Media Guardian

Flipboard

I guess a lot of you have heard of the awesome Flipboard iPad App by now, but if you haven’t and you own an iPad, you’ll be excited to see what this brilliant Social Magazine app actually does.

iPad iOS 3.2.1 now available for download in iTunes

Hot on the heels of the iPhone iOS 4 update, Apple has launched a second update – this one's for the iPad.

The iPad iOS 3.2.1 updates the iPad with the following:

- provides improved WiFi capability
- fixes the copy/paste of single-page PDF’s in Mail
- addresses the issues that causes video playback to freeze
- improves the reliability of video-out when using the iPad Dock Connector to VGA adapter
- added Bing as an option for Safari’s search field

What? Bing? How very un-Apple!

Anyway, just connect your iPad to your computer and check for the update in iTunes.

Make an iPad stand out of pencils

This genius stand design for your iPad comes from gadget blogger Julian Horsey of Geeky Gadgets, and is the successor to his own Pencil iPhone Stand of last year.

It's beautiful to look at, but it's the rubbers on the tips of the pencils that make this design so clever.

Source: Wired

Most romantic gesture ever? Guy sends his beloved a chocolate-covered iPad

Stefan Magdalinski is now the front-runner in the “Guy of the Year” award for buying his wife a chocolate-covered iPad for her birthday, which he managed to get sent to South Africa.

Knowing that his beloved, @kerrching, really wanted an iPad for her birthday, Magdalinski reached out to some friends in London who were not only able to get him an iPad (it’s not yet available in South Africa), but were also able to coat it and freeze it in chocolate.

Apparently the iPad arrived in perfect condition and the chocolate coating didn't harm the iPad in any way.

I'll have a 70%-dark- chocolate-covered iPhone 4 please!




Source: Mashable

Unashamed iPad London love - see how the UK iPad launch took London by storm

Watch this video to see why Londoners were prepared to queue for up to 16 hours to get hold of their own Apple iPad. Also find out what Stephen Fry has to say about his new gadget.

From Brand Republic

UK iPad App store opens for business

British iPad owners and soon-to-be owners can rejoice – Apple has finally switched on its iPad App Store in the UK, which means that users can now purchase apps directly, rather than via a US iTunes account.

Apple has confirmed that countries including UK, Belgium, Spain, Israel, France, the Philippines and New Zealand can now access the App Store, according to TechCrunch.

iPaddies will still be unable to buy an iBook or iWork app outside Apple’s US homeland. But from today they will be able to log on to the store, using their UK iTunes account, and download apps from the likes of the Financial Times, Marvel Comics and Wall Street Journal.

Source: The Wall

Some people are saying Steve Jobs stole the iPad from Bill Gates?

Make up your mind by watching the following video, dated back to 30 May 2007, several month before Jobs launched the iPhone…

GQ for the men, Vanity Fair for the women: Magazine issues come to the iPad

So maybe the promo for the GQ app is a bit silly with its suggestions that you swipe, tap, and flip like a man, but the magazine actually looks rather nice on an iPad (according to the reviewers at Gizmodo), and with both mags, behind-the-scenes videos are included with editorial features, like football players messing about during an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot for the World Cup, and Emma Watson getting made up for her photography session.

Both apps (by Condé Nast) work in horizontal and in vertical mode. When you hold the iPad vertically, you get the digital interpretation of the magazine. That means a split screen with images at the top and text at the bottom.

The app “remembers” where someone left off reading, even if the person turns off the iPad and calls up text from that spot, and a navigation bar across the bottom and on the upper left directs the person to specific stories.

Vanity Fair brought in six advertisers to design ads unique to the iPad — these are the only ads that show up in the vertical mode — and charged other advertisers a nominal fee to include links in their ads,.

There are still unresolved questions about the iPad for publishers. Vanity Fair knows the name and address of everyone who subscribes to its magazines, but it cannot get that data from Apple about iTunes buyers. That’s one reason the magazine industry is working on its own 'digital newsstand', so it can control the consumer relationship. For now, the app does not allow people to copy or share articles or portions of articles.

You can purchase individual magazine issues—including back issues—through the app, via iTunes, for the same price as paper copies.

Source: NY Times

David Hockney has started 'painting' on an iPad in preference to paper

Looks like Hockney doesn’t agree with Bill Gates that tablets need a stylus. In fact, he’s a confirmed iPad fan. He works with the iPhone/iPad App 'Brushes', using his fingers to “paint” directly onto the iPad screen to create digi-art which he sends out as emails.

The iPad is the newest example of Hockney's experimental streak; cameras, faxes, printers, and mirrors, as well as the more conventional oil, watercolour and pencil have all been used. And in the last year he has created many paintings on his iPhone.

Speaking to the Evening Standard about his iPad, Hockney said: “The iPad is far more subtle, in fact it really is like a drawing pad. They will sell by the million. It will change the way we look at everything from reading newspapers to the drawing pad.”

In fact, Hockney’s love of the iPad is so extreme, it almost sounds like he’s auditioning to takeover from Steve Jobs at the next keynote: “It can be anything you want it to be. This is the nearest we have got to seeing what I would call a universal machine.”

Last year he started doing pictures on his iPhone, stating: ""BlackBerries are for secretaries and clerical workers while the iPhone is used by artistic people".

Brits can pre-order iPads from UK Apple Store from today!

Pre-order here. Orders will be shipped on May 28th.

Apple-buffs from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland can also pre-order the iPad from today.

Apple reveals UK iPad prices

Apple has revealed that the iPad, which will go on sale in the UK on 28 May, will cost £429 for the basic version all the way up to £699 for the top of the range 64GB device with both Wi-Fi and 3G network access.

Apple will open its website for pre-orders of the iPad from Monday next week. Alongside the UK, the device will also be available on 28 May in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

In the past, Apple has come in for criticism for the difference between the prices of its products in Europe compared with the US. In the US the basic iPad costs $499, which at the current pound-dollar exchange rate is £338. Apple points out that there are different, and higher, taxes in Europe – the prices it is quoting include VAT – as well as increased transport and other costs.

Apple's price for the 16GB version of the Wi-Fi only iPad is £429 (including VAT) while the 32GB version is £499 and 64GB is £599. For the Wi-Fi and 3G version of the iPad, the 16GB device will be £529 (including VAT), the 32GB device £599 and the largest 64GB Wi-Fi and 3G iPad will be £699.

O2, Orange and Vodafone will all be offering mobile data plans for UK consumers who buy the 3G-enabled iPad, but details have yet to be released.

Source: Guardian Technology