Day four of iPad mania and here it is. You load up your new iPad, which you only got a few days ago and guess what…where’s your files? Your contacts? Your schedule? You’ve fallen victim to the first iPad virus!
Last night, we received an unconfirmed report from a user who appears to have the first iPad virus. From what we know, this has actually been an iPhone virus infecting an iPad device and the virus has not been developed purposely to hit the iPad. We are investigating this ourselves now and will report further on this when we have more details.
iPad’s iPhone OS
How is this possible anyway? An iPhone virus on the iPad? Well, the iPad actually runs the iPhone’s OS. This gives the iPad the capability to run the thousands of applications that have already been written for the iPhone but it also endangers it into giving virus writers an even bigger platform to write for; as most iPhone viruses will work on the iPad too, and vice versa.
Below are some tips on how to prepare and avoid viruses on your iPad and how to remove a virus if you have it.
How to prepare and avoid getting a virus on your iPad?
Preparation is key as with viruses on all computer platforms. Follow these steps to make sure you do not get a virus and are prepared if you do get one:
1. Regularly back up your data through the iTunes synchronization feature. It can automatically store your contacts, schedule, tasks and other data.
2. Install Apple’s regular firmware updates to your iPad. These updates are essential as they patch holes in the security of the iPhone OS. Again this means syncing your iPad up with iTunes often.
3. Be careful which apps you install. Only install applications you trust and do not install apps or open files from outside the iTunes App Store.
What to do if you have a virus on your iPad?
1. Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes by going to the Apple website and downloading the installation file.
2. Connect your iPad to your computer and open up iTunes.
3. Select your iPad when it appears in iTunes under devices
4. Click on the Summary tab
5. Choose the Restore option
6. iTunes will now ask you if you want to back up your device before restoring it. If you have already backed up your device previously, choose ‘Don’t Back Up‘ otherwise press ‘Back Up‘.
7. In the next windows press the ‘Restore‘ button.
8. Your iPad will now restore itself to factory defaults. After it has completed it will show the Apple logo and start up.
9. After the iPad has booted up it will display a ‘Connect to iTunes’ dialog. This will disappear after it is connected again.
10. From iTunes, a dialog will show to ‘Set Up Your iPad’. Choose to restore the backup (pick the backup file you want) and press ‘Continue‘
11. You now hopefully have a working iPad again with your old data restored. Congratulations and stay safe next time!
Apple just announced over 300,000 iPads were sold during its launch weekend. These sales include pre-orders, deliveries to channel partners and sales at Apple stores.
This is a very high number if you take into account the iPhone’s launch sales which were 270,000.The iPad outsold the iPhone during launch. And this is magnificent, if you think about it. The iPad is a much more difficult product to market as mainstream consumers are not used to tablet devices at all. The iPhone was refreshing but it was a smartphone and most people had already used smartphones ( e.g. BlackBerry or HTC devices).
iPad users downloaded over one million iPad apps: that is more than 3 apps downloaded per sold device, and over 250,000 ebooks were sold from the Apple iBookstore, close to one book per sold device.
So let’s look at our previously made predictions, cause we seem to be getting quite close to real numbers. We estimated some 2.65 million units in the current quarter (that is from March 2010 to the end of May 2010, or Q2). In the whole of 2010 we expect Apple will sell 8 million iPads. If we extrapolate that number from the rest of 2010 to the whole of 2011, we can expect over 10 million units to be sold next year. Again these are just averages but do give us an indication of what to expect.
Reports have erupted from iPad users on issues with charging their new devices by USB. The device shows the message “Not charging” eventhough it is connected by USB to a computer or USB hub. Well, it seems to be impossible to charge it through the proprietary USB cable connected to a PC. Nor do any (powered) USB hubs show the ability to charge it. However, it does charge on Apple computers and from AC outlets with the 10-watt power adapter.
What’s going on? Well, the iPad appears to suck so much power that most USB ports simply cannot deliver it to it.
What to do about this? Well, in general it’s best (and quickest) to charge the iPad from your wall socket with the adapter. Otherwise connect it to your Mac and it will charge fast too.
If you need to charge it from a Windows PC and the device shows “Not charging”, simply put it in sleep mode and the device will in fact charge, albeit slowly!
Today, the Internet Movie Database or IMDb launched its IMDb Movies & TV app for the iPad in the App Store. IMDb is the most popular destination for movie related information on the web. It receives over 57 million unique visitors each month.
The IMDb app does exactly what it says on the tin: it makes all of the IMDb website’s information available in a special interface on the iPad. It also gives access to trailers and other movie related videos in high definition video. Apart from that, it can give you show times of your local cinema, TV listings and you can check out the latest box office results.
Nothing we couldn’t do on the IMDb website already, but hey, it makes the interface a bit easier to work with.
It’s day two now of the iPad mania and like everyone we are very curious to know what the sales figures were of yesterday and what they will be for this year. Most iPad coverage by the press and voices from the public (just look ath the hashtag #ipad on Twitter) have been fairly positive. The backlash electronics manufacturers usually see after a hyped product is released, seems to be non-existant with the iPad. There are some bugs to be worked out as usual but overall the device seems to be what people expected it to be.
As all analysts have a different idea, we have averaged up their numbers to come to a rough idea of what we can expect. At the launch weekend (yes that is this weekend) we can expect an estimated 275,000 units to go over the counter and some 2.65 million units in the current quarter (that is from March 2010 to the end of May 2010, or Q2). In the whole of 2010 it is expected Apple will sell 8 million iPads. If we extrapolate that number from the rest of 2010 to the whole of 2011, we can expect over 10 million units to be sold next year. Again these are just averages but do give us an indication of what to expect.
The analysts are conclusive and what are the constraining factors for the iPad’s sales: a lack of supply and the missing of Adobe Flash on the device.
The lack of supply is why the iPad was previously delayed a few days in the U.S. and why it will be released later than planned in the rest of the world.
In addition, many mainstream users who want to use the device to consume content on the web choose to wait out to buy the device since it does not have Flash support. It’s a fair judgement and it will be challenging to see how Apple deals with this issue, which Steve Jobs himself created.
The announcement of the iPad included Apple’s own proprietary iBookstore, an application through which users can buy, store and read fiction and non-fiction works. Apple struck deals with Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, MacMillan and Hachette publishers to fill the store with their book titles. So is this the only way we’re going to read books on our iPad? Not at all!
Here’s a question for you: which platform has the biggest repository of book content in the world, as of now? Google does. With over ten million titles, Google Books is the leader in digital book content now and no competitor has come close this amount.
Google Books is not an e-book store
Google Books has its qualities. It is integrated into Google’s search engine and when our search query matches one of its millions of books, Google shows us the page. However, Google is not leveraging its book platform as a digital e-book store, as you’d expect. It chooses instead to link to online stores where the physical books are sold.
Google’s tense relationship with publishers is one of the reasons for this; Last year, Google settled a court case with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers about its unlimited scanning of books from libraries without any permission from their authors or publishers. Google defended its usage as fair-use under copyright law but as it is a profitable business, the judge was not really going to recognize Google’s defense and a settlement was the result.
The in-court settlement stated that authors and publishers can opt-out of the Google Books program and have their content removed or instead opt-in which means they receive a lump sum for their book (about $40 to $100), a share of the revenue from advertising displayed next to their books and a share of the revenue from optional selling of their books. There you have it: Google says it would like to start selling books soon through Google Checkout and deliver them to customers as standard PDF files. This would mean you could buy and read these books on any mobile device with PDF support, including the iPad. Expected is that Google will develop a more integrated app for the iPad too, like Apple’s iBookstore.
Apple iBookstore vs. Google Books
Will Apple be able to come close to the amount of titles Google has? Possibly, yes. It has done extremely well with a similar concept: its iTunes store; of which the song catalogue now contains over eleven million tracks and which has sold over 10 billion tracks since its launch. Apple’s strategy of actually striking deals with music industry record labels and book publishers at the moment appears to be more effective than Google’s brute-force strategy of just scanning content and having authors and publishers opt-out later. The settlement will make it possible for Google to start selling books but it does not seem to be rushing to do this as I can’t find any title on the Google Books store which I can buy.
Running Google Books on your iPad
Until Google releases its own Books app for the iPad, you can already use a beta version of the service in which publicly licensed books, such as Sherlock Holmes, are available. Running it is as simple as opening up the browser on your iPad and pointing it to http://books.google.com/m.
Have you been using Google Books on your iPhone, iPad or other mobile device? Does it work well for you? How do you expect Google Books and the Apple iBookstore to develop? Can they co-exist on one device? Are they actually very different from each other? Tell me in the comments!
In less than ten years, physical music stores were almost completely replaced by online music sharing services and download stores like iTunes and AmazonMP3. With the advent of e-ink and e-book readers such as the Kindle, the same transition to the online realm has started to take place for books. And today we’re at the brink of the next transition of content to move into the digital realm; yes, we’re talking about print magazines.
Condé Nast, publisher of magazines including Vogue, Wired and Glamour has announced it will begin making some of its magazines available for the Apple iPad, beginning this April. The first titles to be published will be the April edition of GQ followed by Vanity Fair for June and The New Yorker and Glamour following soon after. GQ has been already available on the iPhone as an app previously. WIRED will be hitting the iPad in June.
WIRED leading the way
Condé Nast is one of the first to adopt the iPad as a magazine publishing platform. Its technology imprint WIRED has been leading the way with an enthusiastic reception of the iPad in its editorials and a very refreshing opinion in how it can change the way magazines are published. Its editor-in-chief Chris Anderson called it a ‘game changer’ in magazine publishing. A few weeks ago, WIRED already presented a demonstration version of its magazine, made in Adobe Flash, and shown on a supersized screen symbolizing the iPad. This demonstration showed the digital magazines can include special dynamic content previously deemed impossible in print. Video advertisements and moving pictures were some of the dynamic features.
The iPad runs are part of a test which will run until October of this year at least, according to an internal memo. However, if they deem successful they will most certainly continue.
Laggards and pioneers
Like with all transitions, there are pioneers and laggards. Condé Nast is very smart in embracing this technology instead of fighting it; with this stand, it can most certainly become a pioneer in digital publishing. It can lay the groundwork for how future publishers will make their magazine content available on devices like the iPad. Most other publishers are laggards and are not nearly as far as Condé Nast in how it prioritizes its tablet strategy and already experiments with it. I mean, it is only about a month after we were actually confirmed an iPad was coming and they are already jumping on it like this. Their pioneering strategy demands respect. Publishers of the world: keep a close eye on what is happening here.
How do you see the landscape of print magazines change by the introduction of the iPad? Will print magazines die out completely and be replaced by digital more dynamic versions? Or will things not take off as much as we think and will the magazine fail on a digital device? I’d like to know what you think. Tell me in the comments!
With the advent of the web, comic books experienced quite a revitalization after fans started scanning them, posting them up in online comic communities and making them available for everyone to read. To avoid being late for the party as music publishers were with online music sharing, comic publishers like Marvel quickly stepped in and started publishing their comics digitally. Marvel has been selling them through its store Digital Comics since 2007 already.
Your PC display won’t cut it
Just like with e-books, a computer screen just isn’t the most comfortable way to read a comic. Computer displays tire your eyes quickly, especially when you’re reading content. And the fact that you can’t really hold your computer like you would a comic doesn’t help the viewing experience either.
Panelfly on the iPhone
Now the iPhone was mostly meant to be used as phone, a digital communication device and to quickly browse the web. However, data shows that a high proportion of users actually use their iPhone to read e-books, comic books and magazines; and lots of them. Applications like Panelfly make it possible to download, save and read comics on the iPhone with great simplicity. All good, right? Well, that iPhone screens just seems a tad bit too tiny to read a comic on that is supposed to be the size of a Letter or A4 page.
The iPad and comics
Here’s the good news: Panelfly announced they are developing an iPad version of their comic book application. The iPad is perfect read comics on. Just like with your comic book you can walk around, lie down or put it against the wall while you read it. The app will feature an interface matched to the iPad; details are scarce but it seems to be looking really good according to Gizmodo. Panelfly already supports Marvel Comics, so you can buy those with ease. Details on how purchasing comics will happen on the iPad with Panelfly are still unknown.
Apple has remained silent if it will include comic books in the announced iBookstore. Many sources say they won’t, as the iBookstore app just is not optimized for the multimedial experience comics can bring.
The future is dynamic content
Seeing how magazine publishers are already mentioning adding dynamic multimedia objects in their magazines like audio and video, I can only speculate that the same thing might happen to digital comics in the future. What about moving to the next page of your comic and seeing Batman jump in to the page fighting the Riddler for some seconds, then slowing down and changing into a still comic book page again? I can’t wait!
Have you been reading comics on your iPhone or other mobile device? Does it work for you and how do you expect the iPad to change things for comic readers around the world? Tell me in the comments!
In 1991, there was no talk of tablet computers, they were pen computers. Focusssing on handwriting recognition and interaction by a pen instead of fingers, software developers like Microsoft started including Pen Extensions into Windows 3.1 making it compatible with these pen computers. Microsoft predicted these computers would take over the consumer market in a matter of years, and hardware developers such as IBM, Samsung, Fujitsu and Toshiba quickly followed up to support the new technology with their new touchscreen devices. Tech press was positive but consumers were not ready for it yet. The devices simply did not sell. Millions of dollars in investment were not recouped and instead lost forever.
The moment the tech world has been waiting on for possibly decades, maybe years and definitely months has finally culminated into today…
The official launch of Apple’s highly anticipated tablet device: the iPad. Tablet computers have had a rowdy history. Developed as pen computers in the early nineties to Tablet PC is the naughties and culminating into the iPad.
Tablet computers’ rowdy history
Tablets have been announced and denounced as the future of personal computing for decades. In 1991, they were dubbed pen computers. Focussing on handwriting recognition and interaction by a pen instead of fingers, software developers like Microsoft started including Pen Extensions into Windows 3.1 making it compatible with these pen computers.
Microsoft predicted these computers would take over the consumer market in a matter of years, and hardware developers such as IBM, Samsung, Fujitsu and Toshiba quickly followed up to support the new technology with their new touchscreen devices.
Tech press was positive but consumers were not ready for it yet. The devices simply did not sell. Millions of dollars in investment were not recouped and instead lost forever.
Pulling the tablet out of the niche
In 2000, Bill Gates tried again. He was still a firm believer that this technology could succeed. Re-dubbing the pen computer into the Tablet PC, Microsoft had relative success at stirring up the industry again. Touchscreen technology had developed rapidly since the 1990s fiasco and it was clear that the keyboard would at least for now not be replaced with handwriting technology. These developments made it possible for new devices to enter the market.
However, it still was not really taking off. Even in 2007, offered by majors like Dell and HP, the tablet devices were simply too expensive with prices ranging from $1,500 up to $5,000 and staying in the premium and business niche. One of the first actually cheap devices entering the market and still including a keyboard (being covered by our sister blog) were the Taiwanese ASUS Tablets with models like the ASUS Eee PC T91 and T101 selling unexpectedly well in the consumer market. ASUS’s inferior specifications however resulted in relatively slow devices.
And then Apple stepped in…
Rumors about a tablet device by Apple have been circulating the web for years now and we took part in covering on what was simply wrong, might be true and what was definitely truth. In the last year, the rumors even started seaping into the mainstream (including paper) press coverage, showing the impact of Apple possibly launching a new device on the consumer tech world.
The stories spoke about if an Apple tablet was coming up, what it would look like (with artists all over the web rendering their own 3d interpretations), which specifications it would have and which chips the tablet would run on.
And in the last few months, rumors focused on the tablet possibly offering e-book functionality, making it a serious contender against Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. With The New York Times, Vogue, GQ, Wired and Harper-Collins already rumoring to have signed up to Apple’s content program, this made things all the more interesting.
“Come see our latest creation” says Apple
Today, the moment has arrived to see what is fact and what is fiction and how this device will supposedly change the world. In a packed and excited conference hall Apple invited worldwide press and technology pundits to “Come see our latest creation“, as the invitation read.
Steve Jobs presented us with the tablet device by Apple called the iPad. Video below.
The Apple iPad’s insides
First of all, the iPad comes in two flavours: the standard WiFi-enabled edition and the premium 3G-enabled edition with makes it possible to transfer data over AT&T’s data network. No contract with AT&T is required, however it is obvious that it will cost you to use their network.
Notable specs we really did not expect: the by Apple in-house produced A4 1 GHz processor – we were honestly thinking more of an Intel Duo Core 2 GHz as found in the Apple MacBook range. Earlier we reported the nVidia GeForce 9400M to be in the Apple Tablet. However, this one is missing; the Apple A4 chip seems to be responsible for all video processing in the iPad. Our designs of the Apple Tablet (see the background of this website or previous posts) was pretty close but did not include such a big border as the iPad. Apple has not chosen for this kind of screen for aesthetic reasons but simply to keep costs down. Cheaper screens need more technology on the sides of the displays and therefore the border is so large. We expected a USB port, to enable you to use USB data sticks and external third-party devices on your iPad but for unknown reasons Apple has made the mistake to not include this. Finally, we were wrong by 0.1″ in the size of the display; we expected 9.6″ and the iPad has a 9.7″ display.
No voice calling is available as the iPad is a data-only device. However, we have enough voice-over-ip (VOIP) options like Skype and Fring to choose from to make this possible any way; just after the iPad launch Apple has unlocked VOIP calling on the iPhone.
Focus on content and e-reading
The rumors were correct and Apple has made many deals with book, magazine and news publishers to make their content available on the iPad. Which publishers these are is until now unannounced. If we look at how the iTunes store quickly filled up with music as the major labels signed up, then this should not be such a great obstacle for Apple.
Yes, there were MP3 music stores before iTunes arrived, but Apple stirred up the music industry world due to it being such a major player in the personal computer industry, both in hardware and software. Yes, there are now e-book stores such as Amazon.com, but again Apple is bigger than those and can forge deals with major publishers more easy. In addition to facing Amazon as a competitor in e-books selling and the hardware for it (Amazon offers the Kindle e-reader), Apple will also soon face Google’s Books program which is creating deals with content publishers rapidly and currently offers the most book content out of anyone. Google plans to start selling books soon in PDF and other formats.
What you might miss on the iPad
Yes, there are some notable features missing on the iPad that are to be found on either the iPhone or a standard MacBook; the iPad does not carry a camera. It will not run Adobe Flash, making it disabled as the majority of the web uses Flash to present its content in some way including YouTube for its video streaming. Like the iPhone, the iPad also does not support multi-tasking. This is a disadvantage as much as its an advantage, it increases stability but decreases functionality. There are mixed reports about the WiFi model having a GPS chip or not; the keynote stated it would not, but Apple’s website states it will. This might have been a last-minute choice by Apple after seeing the negative press reactions on this.
Apple iPad specifications
Finally, let’s look at the numbers and data. Here’s the Apple iPad specs.
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Editorial, Rumorville, iPad News | Heather Richardson | Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
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