The long anticipated Apple tablet called the ‘iPad’ has been announced today by Apple that it will be available for pick up on April 3rd. According to their Official Website, you can pre-order one of these bad boys on March 12th.
What do you think of the iPad? Do you think it will be another revolutionary device, or just a big iPod Touch? Leave a comment below.
Apple today unveiled a ”Countdown to 10 Billion Songs” promotion via the iTunes Store, offering the contest winner a prize of a $10,000 iTunes gift card. A counter on the main iTunes Store page and Apple’s home page currently displays in excess of 9.8 billion downloads.
According to the official contest rules, participants may make up to 25 entries per day either by purchasing/downloading songs from the iTunes Store or by filling out an entry form on Apple’s web site. The contest begins today and ends once the 10-billion-song milestone is reached.
The prize will be awarded for the entry (either through a song download or through the non-purchase online entry) sent immediately following the download of the 9,999,999,999th song. The potential winner will be determined by the order of the entries received. In the event that more than one entrant would be a winner based on the simultaneous timing of entries, one entrant will be randomly selected from those entrants as the winner. Each entrants chances of winning are dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.
Apple has periodically offered similar contests in the past, such as its One Billion Song contest in 2006 and a One Billion App contest last year.
Even though the iPad was only announced just last week, a Chinese Tablet manufacturer has already implemented a lawsuit against Apple claiming that the iPad has ripped off it’s tablet design. The P88, which has been available in China for the last six months, carries a 10.2 inch screen, a 250GB hard drive, a 1.3 megapixel camera, an Ethernet port and an Intel 945GSE Processor. It does not support multi-touch, however. 
As you maybe able to see from the picture, the tablet looks like a giant iPhone. When questioned whether the P88 has taken it’s design from the iPhone, Shenzhen Great Loong Brother’s President, Xiaolong Wu replied: “They have nothing to do with it, as they have completely different functions.” Right. So, a company steals the iPhone design and scales it up, but then sues Apple claiming the design as their own. Sounds legit!
I don’t see this lawsuit standing up for much longer.
Written and researched by Sam Rintoul
In the new iPad 3.2 SDK, there have been a few features that weren’t shown at the Apple Keynote yesterday. One important thing that has been noticed is a ‘Take Photo’ option in the Contacts application. Will this lead to a possible camera on the iPad? Or will this just mean one SDK for multi platforms? Well at this point I guess we’ll just have to find out!
Image via ModMyi.com
Many predicted announcements were missing from today’s Apple event, reflection shows. Verizon was not announced as a tablet partner, or even as a new American iPhone carrier. Both the iPad and the iPhone will be AT&T exclusives in the US.
The current list of major iBooks publishers omits McGraw-Hill, which is well-known for its educational textbooks. The reason for McGraw-Hill’s absence is unknown, but it could be retaliation for an accidental reveal by the company’s CEO on Tuesday night.
While hands-on testing has shown that the iPad indeed runs iPhone 3.2 firmware, Apple has also mentioned nothing about whether the firmware will soon be available for the iPhone itself, or the iPod touch. iPhone 4.0 appears to be a long-term proposition, though given the history of the OS it is likely to be announced in March, the same timeframe for the iPad launch.
It’s finally here. At their event in San Francisco, Apple has officially announced their tablet computer, which they’re calling the iPad. Fully customizable, and better than a smartphone or a laptop at browsing, reading e-books, and a “great maps application with support from Google.
Yet another Apple-driven revolution: go!
Specs Update:
Apple has started preparing the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts by installing large banners on the building, which look strikingly familiar to the invitations sent out last week.
January 27th at 10 a.m. Pacific time – Apple is expected to unveil its latest “creation”.
image via MacRumors
Vodafone has only been selling iPhones for a week, and has so far racked up 100,000 sales. After launch on the 14th, Vodafone managed to sell 50,000 units in one day.
“Just over a week since launch and @VodafoneUK has already sold its 100,000th iPhone! #100k” – Via Vodafone’s twitter feed.
O2 lost its exclusive contract for the iPhone with Apple in 2009, when Orange became the second UK carrier, and Vodafone the third.
Zirana, a startup company with the goal to make Zirana.com “a one stop shop for all local information” for “residents of small and medium sized towns all across the world,” including Cupertino, is reporting that za prototype laptop was stolen from Apple’s campus sometime in 2009:
Trade Secret Theft/Possession of Stolen Property – Infinite Loop
Between 1/1 and 12/18, unknown suspect(s) took a prototype laptop worth about $100,000 from Apple Computers on Infinite Loop using an unknown method. The suspect(s) sold it to another suspect. Deputies recovered the laptop from the second suspect and he was released pending further investigation.Given that the laptop was a prototype, it’s no surprise that it could be worth $100,000. And if Apple is having internal theft problems, it’s no wonder they acted so swiftly and decisively to stop Gawker’s (coincidentally) $100,000 bounty on Apple’s tablet.
As Zirana states, the prototype laptop has since been recovered. It should be noted, however, that Zirana’s information on the theft is user generated and does not originate from an official police report or an Apple spokesperson. Then again, maybe that 3GS commercial took its inspiration from real life events?
It was just a couple of weeks ago that we warned you that there were a bunch of phony Apple emails being sent to
MobileMe subscribers designed to trick them into giving up their credit card info.
Now, Apple has published a couple of Knowledge Base articles designed to help you if you get some mail that might not really be from Apple.
The first posting helps you to renew your account, update your credit card information, and to deal with messages MobileMe may send you about your storage limits.
It also has an additional older specific link to help you identify fraudulent emails that look like they are from Apple but aren’t. For whatever reason, crooks love to prey on MobileMe users, and there have been issues with fake renewals and credit card phishing schemes for a couple of years now.
If you have any doubts, check the Apple articles, and report any problems to Apple. A credit card is a terrible thing to waste, or lose.
