Mossberg talked to Jobs about the iBooks application, battery life and whether Walt could write his eventual review of the iPad on the iPad. The part you care about is at 1:55.
http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf
What
Apple has finally introduced dedicated iPad pages to the UK version of its website – but these make no mention of iBooks and continue to neglect to disclose product price.
Steve Jobs made iBooks a prominent feature of his iPad launch presentation, but Apple is not saying when it will acquire the licences necessary for selling ebooks in the UK and elsewhere outside the US.
The WiFi iPad is scheduled to go on sale in the UK and the US at the end of March, there
As previously noted, Walt Mossberg got a chance to speak with Steve Jobs following the unveiling of the iPad on Wednesday and the video was posted to All Things Digital. You can find a full transcript of the conversation below
…so you can pretend? Download it here but note that the aspect ratio is different on the iPhone/touch to the iPad’s 4:3.
Patently Apple found a patent published today by the US Patent & Trademark Office, describing the functionality and use of a still or video camera in the iPhone and/or iPod touch (generally described as “a portable device”). The patent, which was filed on June 5, 2009 (just 14 days before the unveiling of the iPhone 3GS), includes a picture of the portable device with a camera lens located on the back left side. Obviously, the iPhone’s lens is located on the back right side of the device, which leads Patently Apple to believe that the device pictured is, in fact, the iPod touch. As many of you will remember, the iPod touch was believed to be gaining a camera last August, but strangely it did not.
This patent garners even more attention due to the recent discovery in the iPad SDK (“iPhone 3.2 SDK”) of a reference to taking a picture with a built-in camera (something the iPad doesn’t have). As we know, Apple’s traditional iPod refresh season falls in August, though they did add more storage to the device in February 2008.
The entire patent can be viewed here.
The iPad 3G wasn’t pictured at the event but is in Apple’s gallery. The difference is obviously the black patch on the back which also comes over the top of the device until it hits the screen. The plastic allows for better 3G (and GPS?) signals to reach the internal antennas.
It will be interesting to see how good Wifi access is on the regular iPad compared to the one with the plastic backing. Keep in mind the iPod touch has a patch of plastic on its back to help the wifi signal reach the internal antenna.
Adobe’s Adrian Ludwig posted a quick reaction to the news that iPad, at least in its initial form, won’t have Flash. The decision not to include Flash on iPhones was already controversial, but now with a bigger screen and a different usage profile, the iPad’s decision not to use Flash has even more people up in arms.
It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple’s DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.
If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab — not to mention the millions of other sites on the web — I’ll be out of luck.
Would Flash make the iPad better? Surely, even Apple’s go-to publication, the NYTimes.com uses it (and uses it extremely well). For me, Hulu is the most important Flash site that won’t work on the iPad. Instead of being able to watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report free with ads, my only option is to buy them on iTunes (or download a torrent and convert to a format that the iPad can use – but that’s getting absurd).
Will Apple continue to shut out Hulu if they don’t go to HTML5 or build a dedicated app? There might be other iTunes-related politics on that particular case. But what about the NYTimes or any of the sites mentioned above by Ludwig? Until there is a good HTML5 SDK (might not be a bad idea to tack this onto the Webkit team, Apple?), Flash is the best alternative for companies that want to put out interactive content for the web.
The Flash issue was, for the past three years, a technical issue on the iPhone. Those Samsung ARM chips wouldn’t deliver a good Flash experience and Steve Jobs even mentioned that as the reason for not including Flash. But now Android phones and others with ARM Cortex A8 processors are getting a very usable version of Flash. It stands to reason, then, that Apple’s new A4 ARM Cortex A9 chip would provide a good experience, especially with Adobe working with ARM on optimizing the experience for their architecture.
So now it isn’t about speed. The iPad’s processor can handle Flash. It is politics.
On one side, you have Apple who doesn’t want to rely on Adobe to keep its application running well on its platform (see Mac version of Flash) or nor do they want competition for App Store developers. On the other, you have Adobe who’ve optimized their code for mobile devices and have millions of Flash apps already on the web and thousands of developers spitting out new applications every day.
In the middle, is the consumer who wants to buy an iPad to watch Hulu TV.
Perhaps, if implemented like Safari on the desktop with Flash running as a separate process with a ClicktoFlash implementation, it would make sense for Apple to support it. It could be done like Copy/Paste, MMS or tethering (whoops!) on the iPhone: Slow, behind the curve, but eventually done right.
But there is also every possibility that Apple will never let the Flash player onto any of its iPhone OS products.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnT0zp8Ya4&w=640&h=400]
MacNN has a report this morning stating that Apple will hold an internal meeting today to discuss the features, purpose, and plan for the iPad and where it fits into the company’s strategic plans, according to “several sources”.
A similar meeting was held shortly after the launch of the iPhone in 2007 when Steve Jobs fielded questions from employees. The questions included one asking about the possible cannibalization of the iPod via the iPhone to which Jobs replied that if anyone would be cannibalizing Apple’s products, he hoped it would only be Apple.
Just over three years after the announcement of the iPhone, we have seen the success that the iPhone has had and that, though it has slightly cannibalized iPod sales, the iPhone continues to outpace expectations nearly every quarter.
Celebrity Apple fan Stephen Fry has published an extensive report detailing his thoughts on the iPad, which he flew to the US to take a look at last night, chaperoned by Jony Ive.
As expected, the iPad won
Though we suppose Apple could have just added a mic to the top of the iPad for Shazam, et al., doesn’t it seem slightly weird that Steve & Co. didn’t even mention it during the 95 minutes of iPad demos today?
What do you think? Does Apple have something up their sleeves?
Earlier today, we pointed out that though the iPad lacks camera hardware, there seemed to be support for picture taking within the SDK. Well, not that this would be as nice as a simple camera attachment (via 30-pin connector), but by using your iPhone as the camera and then hooking it up to an iPad Connector Kit (see below), uploading pictures on the go would be slightly more realistic (though still kind of not intuitive). This sure doesn’t seem like how Apple meant it to be done…
Earlier today, Steve & Co. announced that the wifi-only iPad would be “shipping within 60 days” and the 3G-capable models coming within 30 days after that. That 60 day time frame puts us at Sunday, March 28th. Looking at past product launches and store availability, we can see that the original iPhone was made available on a Friday, while the original iPod touch was made available on a Thursday. Knowing Apple like we do (and using past availability patterns), we can assume that the iPad will most likely become available in stores on Thursday, March 26th or Friday, the 27th. But why does all this matter? Well…
The iPhone OS 3.0 SDK was launched on March 17, 2009 which brought MMS, Copy & Paste, and many other features. A year earlier, the iPhone OS 2.0 SDK was launched on March 6, 2008 which brought Exchange support, Remote Wipe, and obviously the ability to program apps through the later-released App Store. With the iPad SDK (officially “iPhone SDK 3.2”) not being compatible with iPhones and iPod touch, one could make the safe assumption that Apple will release a new SDK (4.0?) sometime in early to mid-March that works with the iPhone (I mean…it is called the iPhone SDK after all!). That’s not it though…
In February 2008, the iPhone and iPod touch received storage upgrades. With the iPod touch missing a camera (that seemed to be a lock in the days before the 3rd gen.’s launch), it would seem early to mid march would be a perfect timeframe for Apple to bring the camera into the product line. Furthermore, with an awkward gap currently in the line (8GB 2nd gen., 32GB 3rd gen., and 64GB 3rd gen.), it would also be conceivable to see Apple bring a 16GB model to the scene in the 3rd gen. form.
Just over a week ago, BGR seemed to believe that the 4.0 SDK would be launched today (see screenshot below), so perhaps they got word of the launch, but guessed the timing wrong.
What do you think? Will Apple bring the iPhone OS 4.0 SDK to developers in March prior to the iPad’s launch? What about a 16GB iPod touch with a camera? Feel free to share your thoughts/guesses/tips/inside information below.
Earlier today, Steve & Co. announced that the wifi-only iPad would be “shipping within 60 days” and the 3G-capable models coming within 30 days after that. That 60 day time frame puts us at Sunday, March 28th. Looking at past product launches and store availability, we can see that the original iPhone was made available on a Friday, while the original iPod touch was made available on a Thursday. Knowing Apple like we do (and using past availability patterns), we can assume that the iPad will most likely become available in stores on Thursday, March 26th or Friday, the 27th. But why does all this matter? Well…
The iPhone OS 3.0 SDK was launched on March 17, 2009 which brought MMS, Copy & Paste, and many other features. A year earlier, the iPhone OS 2.0 SDK was launched on March 6, 2008 which brought Exchange support, Remote Wipe, and obviously the ability to program apps through the later-released App Store. With the iPad SDK not being compatible with iPhones and iPod touch, one could make the safe assumption that Apple will release a new SDK (4.0?) sometime in early to mid-March. That’s not it though…
In February 2008, the iPhone and iPod touch received storage upgrades. With the iPod touch missing a camera (that seemed to be a lock in the days before the 3rd gen.’s launch), it would seem early to mid march would be a perfect timeframe for Apple to bring the camera into the product line. Furthermore, with an awkward gap currently in the line (8GB 2nd gen., 32GB 3rd gen., and 64GB 3rd gen.), it would also be conceivable to see Apple bring a 16GB model to the scene in the 3rd gen. form.
Just over a week ago, BGR seemed to believe that the 4.0 SDK would be launched today (see screenshot below), so perhaps they got word of the launch, but guessed the timing wrong.
What do you think? Will Apple bring the iPhone OS 4.0 SDK to developers in March prior to the iPad’s launch? What about a 16GB iPod touch with a camera? Feel free to share your thoughts/guesses/tips/inside information below.
In case you were wondering, the demo units had four but:
You can now make and receive VoIP calls over 3G on the iPhone (and iPad?!) according to iCall’s most recent press release. Apple updated the terms of the SDK to allow VoIP calls over 3G even though some operators, like Tmobile in Germany, don’t allow VoIP calls on their network. iCall also has push notifications, rounding out a pretty impressive specs list — one that finally makes VoIP a first-class citizen on the iPhone.
Will Skype follow or tack on some more excuses?
Walt Mossberg gave his generally favorable first impressions of the iPad, concluding:
Still, the software looked impressive, and that could help Steve Jobs do the one thing even he has never done in an amazing career: get the public to love not just a better version of an existing type of gadget, but a whole new category of gadget.
It could very well be one of the carryovers from the iPhone bit of the SDK, but according to TechCrunch, the iPad’s SDK has reference to taking pictures with a built-in camera.
Was there supposed to be a camera in this model or does this have to do with the ability of the device to connect to external cameras? More importantly, will there be one built-in camera the next version?
It
Huge pre-launch hype might almost have reached
