Apple can’t keep up with the demand for the iPad in the United States and is currently rolling out its European debut of the product, so the last thing Apple needs is a new retail partner to sell more product, especially Wal-Mart. Senior vice-president of entertainment at Wal-Mart told Bloomberg, “We anticipate being able to have the iPad later this year.” An announcement is expected later today that will explain Wal-Mart’s intentions to expand their electronics division, though a specific iPad announcement will probably be a few weeks, if not months, away.
In 1909 an article appeared in Popular Mechanics by Nikola Tesla, inventor of the AC current, that predicted the availability of wireless SMS texting.
Tesla wrote in the magazine that one day it’d be possible to transmit “wireless messages” all over the world and imagined that such a hand-held device would be simple to use and one day everyone in the world would communicate to friends using it, Porges said.
This would usher in a new era of technology, Telsa wrote in the publication.
“Nikola Tesla was able to predict technology which is still in its nascent forms a hundred years later. He talked a lot about his other great passion, which was wireless power.
“It has taken a little longer to get off the ground, but work on fascinating wireless conductive transmission is going on right now in research centres at MIT and Intel and other places,” ‘The Daily Telegraph’ quoted Porges as saying.
Instead of one sentence explanations buried in emails to obscure customers, Steve Jobs has finally written a proper open-letter that explains Apple’s position on Flash. Frankly, I’ve had an iPad since launch day and have yet to miss Flash.
Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.
I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.
Nintendo’s decision to not include a built-in rechargeable battery pack with the Wii remote has left you with an odd conundrum. On the one hand, you don’t necessarily have to stop gaming or swap controllers just because the batteries have died. If you have another set of batteries on hand, you simply swap them out. There’s no need to stop the gaming session for a recharging session.
On the other hand, you’re also needlessly spending money on items that could have a much longer shelf life. Why spend money on an entirely new set of batteries each time the previous set runs out of juice?
Let’s face it: disposable batteries have been outmoded for a while now. Rechargeable batteries are the way of the savvy consumer, and Nintendo’s decision has left you with several options in the rechargeable battery realm.
The Wii’s popularity has rallied in numerous aftermarket accessories, so there’s no lack of variety. Before you waste another dime on a set of disposable AAs, take a look at our detailed battery guide and choose a set of rechargeables that are right for you.
We’ll weigh the three major options currently available, and provide a breakdown at the end to indicate which option best suits your gaming habits.
From the If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em Dept., it has been revealed that Barnes & Noble will release a Nook reader app for the iPad and, later down the road, iPhone. With Amazon on-board with their Kindle app and now Barnes & Noble, along with Apple’s own fledgling iBook app, the iPad has fast become the e-reader of choice.
The demo was conducted in an in-store Barnes & Noble Cafe, and a couple of tables away from us, a patron was flipping through a few magazines he’d borrowed from the nearby magazine rack as he sipped coffee. At another table, a customer was using B&N’s free Wi-Fi to surf the Web on his iPad, which begged the question, when would we see a new B&N eReader iPad app?
The answer is May, though no specific date was given. Barnes & Noble reps said the new iPad app is completely redesigned from the ground up. Interestingly, the company is also working on a totally new iPhone app, but it will come out after the iPad app and be offered as separate download for iPhone and iPod Touch users. Unlike Amazon’s Kindle iPhone/iPad app, the B&N eReader will not be a universal app (you’ll have to download the specific version for the specific device).
All in all, this is good news for Nook owners, as the device they bought starts to fulfill more of its potential and works out the kinks that were highlighted in many early reviews. We’re still waiting for a weather app, but at least the games, as basic as they are, show some of the possibilities. If you’re wondering exactly how the whole gaming thing works, you use the touch screen to move your pieces in chess, and those moves are reflected on the larger playing board on the e-ink display. It’s a little awkward at first playing in this manner–especially if you’re used to using a large touch screen device like the iPad–but you get used to it after a bit.
In what has to be one of the more impressive hacks for the iPhone (and inevitably the iPad), a man has figured out how to get the Android operating system to run on Apple’s iPhone.
Pre-built images and sources at http://www.mediafire.com/?xqjzn12igfn. Read the README. For generic openiboot instructions, there’s plenty now that you can search for.
It should be pretty simple to port forward to the iPhone 3G. The 3GS will take more work. Hopefully with all this groundwork laid out, we can make Android a real alternative or supplement for iPhone users. Maybe we can finally get Flash.
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