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Michael Gartenberg on Apple's iPad strategy

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Feb 1 2010 - 9:52 am PT
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Michael Gartenberg distills Apple’s approach in introducing the iPad product down to a four-pronged strategy:

1. Define what your product does
2. Leverage what you’ve done before
3. Make your product additive to your ecosystem
4. Solve a problem, don’t be a feature

Having done these four things sets a foundation for a great product launch.   This is one reason why Steve Jobs has such great presentation success.  He believes in, has confidence in, and is generally excited about what he’s presenting.   Others take note. Maybe someone should make that into a book.

Windows 7 coming to iPad (via Citrix client)

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Feb 1 2010 - 7:32 am PT
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It’s blasphemy, we know.  But Citrix already has their Windows 7 thin client running on the iPad emulator.  It will likely be brought to market when the iPad is released on March 26th (or thereabouts).  As MacInBusiness writes,

iPad as thin client? You bet. As a thin client even the $499 model is a pretty amazing product, a pretty great value and certainly good enough from a CPU and RAM standpoint. And it

AT&T throws another $2 billion into its network ahead of iPad launch

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 31 2010 - 10:51 pm PT
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According to a report this evening, AT&T expects to invest an additional $2 billion into its network in 2010 to meet the growing demands of

Stankey [best name evar]acknowledged that AT&T has faced some difficulties, particularly in cities like New York and San Francisco. But he said the company is “closing the gap.” He said there are periods of time during the week in some sections of Manhattan where nearly 70 percent of the phones active on its network are data-intensive devices. He said to deal with this surge in usage, AT&T is increasing 3G radio capacity in those trouble areas by more than one third. The company will also add additional radio network controllers on existing cell sites.

As for San Francisco, Stankey blamed the poor network performance on zoning issues that have prevented the company from getting new cell phone towers up. But he said the company was been working to resolve these issues. And AT&T expects to add new cell towers in the Bay Area in 2010. And it’s boosting capacity at convention centers, sports stadiums and along public transportation routes.

Least important iPad feature: Digital photo frame

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 31 2010 - 9:18 pm PT
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This one slipped under many a radar, but if you were listening to the iPad presentation during the accesories rundown at the end, you caught that the iPad is also a Digital Picture Frame as well as all of the other exciting stuff it does.  You activate it from the lock screen with an icon to the right of unlock slider.  You can then play any of the slideshows you’ve set up in the photos app.  Neat.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcIOrnQc3nU&w=700&h=400]

Just one of the little things that make this product a little bit better. A ten inch photo frame runs north of $100. It is included in the $499+ price of the iPad.

Apple posts more detailed App Store Review Clock for Developers

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 31 2010 - 5:36 pm PT
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Screen shot 2010-01-31 at 6.27.52 PM.png

iPhone and now iPad Developers now have a more detailed way to see how app approvals are progressing. Apple added a clock a few weeks ago that displayed the percentage of apps approved within the last 14 days.

Now there is a new clock that shows the percentage of new apps approved within the last seven days as well as the percentage of apps updated approved within the last 7 days. Right now the percentages are locked in at 99% for updates and 98% for new apps.

This shows that Apple is striving to improve the developer experience after some bad press received from the review process.

Steve Jobs: Adobe is Lazy, Google's 'Don't be Evil' Motto is BS

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 31 2010 - 12:19 am PT
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As we reported earlier, Apple had an all-hands meeting this week where, according to Wired, Steve Jobs went on a rant about other companies in Apple’s ecosystem.  

According to an employee at the meeting, workers were able to ask Steve Jobs anything they wanted that involved the company and their new iPad product. Putting the actual iPad device and its specifications to the side, Apple employees were eager to know about the ongoing situations with Google and Adobe. When Jobs was asked by an employee his thoughts on Google and their competetion Jobs remarked:

On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won

Apple working on chat client for future version of iPhone OS?

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 30 2010 - 11:05 pm PT
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It certainly appears that Apple is working on and prototyping an instant messaging client for future version of iPhone OS. Text strings found in the latest iPhone OS 3.2 beta appear to reference “ChatKit” which was an Objective-C based IM client framework developed by Adium but since left for dead.

The strings found in the SDK reveal that a future IM client developed by Apple might allow users to send pictures (similar to iChat) and would have a similar interface to the included Messages (SMS and MMS) app on the iPhone. The triggering indication of Apple working on an IM client in this text string is the references to the phrase “Buddy Messages.”

While this possible future IM client similar to iChat, with the User Interface of the iPhone Messages app, is referred to within the SDK’s core files, there is no IM client on the iPhone OS 3.2 simulator. Apple may very well be working on an IM client to work hand in hand with their Push Notification system on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch but only time will tell if this ever happens.

Apple Youtube channel gets iPad event in four parts.

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 30 2010 - 8:19 am PT
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Apple today uploaded the full iPad presentation (in 4 parts) to what appears to be its official Youtube channel (as we reported yesterday). The videos can be viewed in 720P HD and in H.264 using Youtube’s new HTML5 website. We’ve embedded them below for your viewing pleasure.  Interestingly, they’ve updated the videos to include the inability to view Flash.  Perhaps this is the reason for Apple going to this new medium

Apple updates its site to reflect that the iPad can't do Flash

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 30 2010 - 6:27 am PT
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Our report from yesterday must have rattled some cages at Media Arts Lab, Apple’s advertising agency.  As we were told by our source at the secretive organization, Apple came crashing down on them with urgent requests to change the video. 

Update: We’ve just got word from our source at Chiat/Day Media Arts Lab that they make fake optimized web pages for all of Apple’s commercials — which load faster.  In this case they made optimized images to take the place of Flash and are redoing them as we speak.  So probably no Flash.

They’ve been quick to respond with new screenshots and video for Cupertino showing the missing Flash Plug-in logos where Flash videos had appeared to have loaded before.  If Apple had left the Flash movies in the video, they’d be exposed to false advertising claims. 

Below you can see the screengrab of the new video changed to show the iPad’s inability to play Flash.  This is what I saw at the event earlier this week.

Compare to the screengrab of original below:

To compare to the original video, see the youtube here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-aVbSmfTFs&w=700&h=400]

They’ve also updated their stills to show NYTimes pages without Flash in them.  The original:

The new version which has a different, non-Flash page on the left and shows empty space where the video section once showed Flash video:

Apple clearly has no immediate plans to have Flash on the iPad.

(Thanks again to Andrew Paul Simmons for the  tip)

Has Apple started a Youtube Channel?

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 29 2010 - 4:59 pm PT
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This Apple YouTube Channel seems a little more legit than the one we mentioned last year.  One reason is that it has a pretty solid vanity URL: http://www.youtube.com/apple.   At the moment it only has the iPad video but we’ll see soon if it gets shut down like the last one or if it gets new videos.  

Update: Interestingly, if you look at the feed, you’ll get many more videos but most have been marked as private – screengrab below

 

Opinion: Man-purses are about to catch on bigtime

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 29 2010 - 1:40 pm PT
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Women are set.  Just throw your new iPad into your big-ass purse and be done with it. 

I’m planning to get Apple’s new gadget. The biggest decision is whether to wait for 3G or get one on March 26th. (Who are we kidding? I’ll be camping out at the Apple Store on release day).  The real question is: How am I going to schlep one of these things around? 

The point of the iPad is that I can take it places where my MacBook Pro doesn’t need to go.  I’m thinking weekend trips, vacations, coffee shops, etc. 

The Europeans are also set.  They have the European carry-all because there (in France at least) you need to carry your car registration with you everywhere and your driver’s license is the size of a passport. It’s socially acceptalbe and dare I say? hip. You can fit an iPad into one of those.

But what about us American guys? 

Fanny pack?  Negative.

Unless anyone has any better suggestions, it is looking like my only option for carrying one of these around is going Euro. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

 

 

iPad will be

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 29 2010 - 12:27 pm PT
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This one from Setteb.it.  Tmobile.de, in their irrational exuberance for the iPad, posted a page with iPad pricing to their Website today but then quickly removed it. 

It is interesting that Apple is still selling these through the mobile carrier, since half of the product matrix doesn’t have 3G. 

Also, interesting that Tmobile has already begun rolling out their website as Apple said “they’re currently working out deals with providers”.  The site didn’t provide what rate the 3G plans would cost Europeans.

Full product matrix below:

 

 

We're offering a special on a SIM to Micro-SIM conversion kit for iPad

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 29 2010 - 11:39 am PT
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Only $11!

But seriously, it seems that those Micro-SIMs that the iPad take aren’t technologically that different from their bigger brethren.  In fact all you have to do is cut some of the plastic off of the regular SIM to make it a micro-SIM, according to CNET.uk and their quote from the ETSI.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which sets the standards for SIM cards, tells us that except for the size of the plastic around the chip, micro SIM cards are identical to the SIM cards we normally find in phones.

And you were worried!  Remember, if you decide to cut your SIM card, it ain’t going to go nicely back into your iPhone, mkay?

The iPad has Adobe's Flash on Apple's video

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jan 29 2010 - 7:17 am PT
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Update: Our report has forced Apple to change its Website.  Details here.

You saw it here first, folks.  In Apple’s official video the iPad, they show the New York Times being used.  Looks pretty nice right?  Well, unless the Times has a special iPad version of the site that switches HTML5 out when it detects Apple mobile products (btw, check current iPhone version of the Times below), the iPad has Flash.  

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-aVbSmfTFs&w=700&h=400]

This is interesting because Adobe has already come out against Apple and the iPad for not including Flash.  They’d know if Apple was using it, wouldn’t they?

Normally, we’d say that Apple simply did the renders in the Mac version of Safari and just CG’ed it into the video.  However, you can see the page rendering and being resolution independent as well, so it is likely being done on an iPad.   Note the iPad simulator in Dev Tools also doesn’t render Flash.

Update: We’ve just got word from our source at Chiat/Day Media Arts Lab that they make fake optimized web pages for all of Apple’s commercials — which load faster.  In this case they made optimized images to take the place of Flash and are redoing them as we speak.  So probably no Flash.

Here is a screen-grab the Apple.com video showing the NYTimes front page:

Here’s the NYTimes with ClickToFlash on Safari.  Note that the Video section and Travel section are both Flash.

Here is the Travel Section as they show the iPad using it with the “31 Places to Go in 2010”:

 

 

 

Here is that same page on Safari with ClickToFlash:

The demo units they had at the event showed the NYTimes.com with Flash plug-in monikers as well.  This shot from Engadget/Adobe shows what we saw at the event:

Will we see Flash on the final version of the iPad?  (Vote now!)  The chances just got a whole lot better, no?

Update: For those who think the Times have a special HTML5-enabled version of the site for iPad and iPhone, here is the same page on iPhone complete with missing Flash plugin:

(big thanks to Andrew Paul Simmons for the tip!!)