iPad 2 vs. the competition

Walking into an Apple store one might be amazed at how hard it is to escape the long lines. The people in the lines only want one thing–the iPad 2 which was unveiled on March 3. CEO and founder of Apple Steve Jobs says, “We’ve just never had a product get off to this fast of a start.”

Of course there is the competition such as the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Sliding PC 7. They both offer an experience like the iPad 2, but how do each of these products stack up compared to one another?

According to bitrebels.com, to decide which tablet is the right choice for a person, they must first know what and how they are going to use it.

The iPad 2 is aimed at those who enjoy reading but does not limit itself to just that group. A game lover can watch as games literally “come alive” while they are playing. The effortless speed and thinness of the iPad 2 are drawing people in large numbers to places like the Apple store and Best Buy.

The price of the iPad 2 influences the sales. Marketing techniques of up to $100 off this starting price of $499 are causing sell outs in different stores all around the world.

The Motorola Xoom is priced at $799 and came out Feb. 24, a whole week before the iPad was released. What exactly comes with such a hefty price tag? A bigger touchscreen and a wee bit of a heavier device. It is not as lightweight as the iPad 2 but promises an experience like no other tablet on the market. What might attract tablet users to this product is the battery life.  According to slashgear.com, with very heavy use, the Xoom lasted over 14hrs –over 8hrs of which the screen was on– before shutting down.  With more casual use, especially if predominantly browsing, we’d expect to see 9hrs or more.

The Samsung Sliding PC 7 slides and can be used as a great conversation starter for the avid computer user. The starting price is around $599 and is hailed as a tablet/netbook combination. It looks like a laptop  and makes surfing the Internet look cool. Although it is not as thin as the iPad 2 or the Motorola Xoom, it has a “futuristic” look that draws people in.

No matter which one a user decides to choose, all of these products are great buys.

Apple announces new line of products

The small company that was best known during the 80′s for their “1984″ ad has become a huge success. The beginning of their success was the iPod and iTunes, the very first devices that began with an “i.” Today, Apple has sold 275 million iPod devices. The secret to the iPod’s success, according to Steve Jobs, is the fact that they have never “rested on their laurels” when it came to the product.

This year, Apple has done a full update for every iPod device (the largest update they have ever done for one line of products).

iPod Nano

The Nano has always been noted for its incredibly small size, but Apple still believed that their device “could be even smaller.” How could they possibly make an already miniscule device even smaller? Easy. Get rid of the Click Wheel. The new iPod Nano has a touchscreen, and the Nano is 46% smaller and 42% lighter than its last incarnation. On the back of the Nano is a clip which makes the device instantly wearable. If the user clips on the Nano upside down, he could just take two fingers to swipe around the screen, which then turns the screen’s direction for accessibility. Storage for photos is still available, but videos are no longer available. The Nano also features VoiceOver (that lets the user simply say what song he would like the iPod to play), FM Radio, and Nike + and pedometer support. The device is $149 for 8GB and $179 for 16GB.

iPod Shuffle

The first iPod Shuffle device had buttons and was about the size of a stick of gum. The second generation was smaller and featured a clip on the back. The users of the device were mostly fitness enthusiasts, and the device became one of their highest selling devices.  Third generation they got rid of the buttons, which many criticized because they were unable to use third party headphones, for control of the device. Apparently, people missed the buttons. So, fourth generation has buttons and Voice Over (a way to control iPod songs through voice commands.) The device is $149 for 8GB and $179 for 16GB.

iPod Touch

The most popular iPod device is the iPod Touch. Many criticize the device by saying, “It’s just the iPhone without the phone.” According to Jobs, “It’s also the iPhone without the contract.” The device is the number one most popular portable gaming device, with over 1.5 billion game downloads to its name. The new iPod Touch is thinner, and it also features the A4 chip (the same chip in the iPhone 4), Retina Display, 3-axis gyro, and iOS 4.1. Apple has also added a front-facing camera that allows for FaceTime over Wi-Fi. The device is $299 for 32GB and $399 for 64GB.

iTunes 10

iTunes has become the number one online media seller in the world, with over 11.7 billion song downloads, 450 million TV episodes, and 100 million movies sold. In fact, iTunes is beginning to surpass the CD in sales.

They have changed the interface a bit, in iTunes 10, by giving the album and album artwork its own column.

One of the hardest parts a user may find when it comes to his music player is finding new music.

“Now, one of the biggest things we focus on in iTunes is discovery,” said CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs during a September press conference.

“We try to present some new things, but people are always asking, what are my friends listening to, what are my favorite artists up to, what concerts are my friends going to, and if I see or hear something really great I want to tell my friends about it.”

So, in iTunes 10, Apple is releasing Ping. Ping is the social network for music. A user is able to follow his favorite artists and friends, see what concerts his friends are going to, features direct links to Ticket Master (for concerts), and it finds out what music their friends have recently bought. For now, only a few major artists have joined, but the amount of people joining the “social network” has increased greatly since its initial release.

iTV

“We’ve got one more thing . . . actually it’s one more hobby,” continued Jobs. Of course he is referring to Apple TV. During its initial release in 2006, Apple TV was praised by critics and was described by many gadget blogs as a “TV killer.” Unfortunately for Apple, it was not a financial success.

“So what have we learned from our users [that use Apple TV] over the past four years?” said Jobs. “We’ve learned that the number one, two or three thing they want is Hollywood movies and TV shows whenever they want them . . . They want everything in HD (High Definition) . . . They want lower prices for content and they don’t want their TV to be a computer . . . And they don’t want to manage their storage.”

The new Apple TV (also known as iTV) is one-fourth of the original size. It comes with an HDMI connector, an Ethernet input location, and it is Wi-Fi enabled. Apple TV is also all HD (when available) and everything is rented with purchases going directly into iTunes instead of being stored on the device itself. The ability to stream music, movies, and photos off the computer is also present in Apple TV.

HD movies are $4.99 for new movies. HD TV shows are only $.99. Also, they are commercial free. ABC and Fox are, for now, the only ones who have jumped on the Apple bandwagon. In addition to renting, a Netflix subscriber is able to stream content, and a user can stream videos off of YouTube.

The interface of Apple TV is extremely clean and easy to use, with IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes built into their movie descriptions. The majority of the content is extremely easy to access.

Also, if a user were watching “Up” on their iPad or iPhone, with a simple press of a button he would be able to have it show on the Apple TV. Yes, you read that right. Full integration between different mobile devices and the Apple TV, thanks to Air Share. Apple TV is $99.

Apple has done it again with a surprising announcement during the September first conference. All of the devices above are now on sale in any Apple store or online.

Why is the laptop hanging on the wall?

Although it has been around for decades, the television industry has seen few improvements in recent years. DVR has been one of the largest improvements of television technology; unfortunately, it has been killing prime-time for the past year. As the addition of more content over the Internet continues, the television on the wall will soon be replaced by a computer.

How?

In the last few years, many people who could not afford or did not wish to pay the prices of cable or satellite have switched to watching television programming on their computers, since many free shows and movies are available over the Web, thanks to major networks such as NBC or USA.

However, on March 12, 2008, a brand new way to view media was released–Hulu.

Hulu combines video content from major networks, and they also offer free movies. Accepted within the technologically savvy world with open arms, Hulu was reaching video streams of 903 million by 2010, second only to YouTube.

In June, CEO Jason Kilar announced Hulu Plus. Hulu Plus is very similar to Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” feature. After buying a subscription to Hulu Plus, a user is able to access 21 episodes of “House,” when a non-subscriber is only able to watch five, and a member of Hulu Plus can watch 147 episodes of “Family Guy” while a non-subscriber is only able to watch eight.

Although it may not be able to compete with Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” feature now, due to a lack of shows and movies, it is another content source that compliments Hulu nicely.

In 2007, Apple announced their new line of Apple TVs. The TVs provided the users with internet on their television. The device waned out of existence in 2008, because of the focus consumers and media had on Apple’s iPhones.

Luckily for consumers, Boxee picked up where Apple left off. During the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) of 2008, Boxee showed off their new program in the Alpha stages. The program was praised by media, and on January 7, 2010, Boxee released their Beta to the public.

Boxee takes the content available on Netflix (to its subscribers), Hulu, and the major networks and puts it into one simplified interface. Boxee can also access both the movies or music that users store on their computer and apps, such as Pandora or YouTube. It features an RSS reader, and full High Definition web content. The software version is available now through beta testing, and the Boxee Box will be ready for the television this November.

Now, Google and Apple have looked at streaming web content on a television more closely. Google announced during May 2010 their new line of Google TVs, and Apple recently updated their line of iTVs.

If that’s not enough, users can now use their iTunes account to rent a show . . . for $.99.

During their press conference on September 1st, Apple announced their new program of show rentals. In other words, if a user wants to watch “Glee”, but the episode is unavailable on Hulu, he could rent the show through Apple for only 99 cents just as if he were renting a movie. For now only ABC and Fox are offering shows, but according to Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, others will most likely join soon.

“Let’s start in your living room. You’re sitting down for dinner, and you’d like to pull Hulu up on your TV,” said Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, during the announcement of Hulu Plus. “Today you’d have to plug a computer into the TV and try to connect the audio from your computer to your sound system. It’s certainly doable, but it’s not as easy as it could be.”

The only downside to streaming off of the Internet is that it can seem incredibly daunting. Television manufacturers like Samsung have released their internet-connected TVs. The TV’s will allow “plug-n-play” Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube capabilities, but if a user feels that he does not want to spend another grand on a brand new TV, he could just spend one-hundred for iTV or Boxee (the price for Boxee has not yet been announced) and plug the box into the television, allowing full internet-streaming capability.

Also, many networks are extremely wary of viewers being able to view their content without actually watching a television set, due to having to play less ads online than on television. However, with the announcement of iTV during the Apple conference both ABC and FOX seem to have embraced the idea of streaming media from the “cloud.”

So, as the internet progresses television slowly fades into white noise, but hopefully, television and internet can have a bright, unified future.

Apple constructs new iPhone operating system

With the new release of the iPad, Apple has probably been featured on the front cover of every gadget magazine. Today, Apple is once again on the front page with OS 4.0. The update includes many changes, for better or for worse.

A long awaited feature for the iPod, iPad, and iPhone is multitasking. For example, currently users who want to surf the web while listening to Pandora radio cannot because the Pandora app closes as soon as they opens Safari. However, with the new multitasking feature, users will be able to listen to Pandora in the background while surfing the web or using any other app.

Although multitasking is not a new technology for smart-phones, it has never been included on any Apple mobile devices.

“Now we weren’t the first to this party, but we’re gonna be the best. Just like cut and paste,” said Apple founder Steve Jobs said.

Usually, multitasking tends to bog down mobile devices. Apple has changed that. In a demonstration at the iPhone OS 4.0 conference changing from mobile Safari to Flickr seemed seamless. In fact, Apple claims to have made multitasking more power-efficient.

Scrolling through the menu on the iPhone has also been a problem. After downloading several apps, it becomes difficult to find a specific application. To fix the dilemma, Apple has added Folders to the iPhone. Folders store several applications in one icon, taking up less space and allowing for more applications on the iPhone. For example, currently users can only see 180 apps on the iPhone; soon, a user will be able to view 2,160 on the iPhone menu.

iBooks has been one of the best features of the iPad; now, it is joining the iPhone and iPod Touch. iBooks will feature a bookshelf that allows the user to choose a book simply by touching its cover on the screen.

iBooks will also be able to sync between other Apple devices. In other words, if a user owns “Pride and Prejudice” on the iPad, the user will also be able to read the book on the iPhone. Bookmarks will be carried over to other devices as well. Also, “Winnie the Pooh” comes free with the download.

Prices for iBooks will be based on how well a book sells. For example, a popular book like “Twilight” will be cheaper than a poorly selling book. Popular books will match the prices of Amazon or may even be cheaper. This price range encourages book publishers to allow Apple to sell the books.

Currently, large corporations have turned their backs on Apple because of Apple’s focus on mobile personal use rather business use. To change that, Apple has added wireless app distribution, mobile device management, and even better data protection, as well.

Wireless app distribution allows the bypassing of the iTunes store, so when a employee tries to download the lightsaber app, it will not be allowed. Also, Apple has cracked down on data protection which, according to Apple, will encourage corporations to allow employees to use the iPhone or iPad for business use.

Apple currently has over 50,000 game titles. This number is huge in comparison to Sony PSP’s 2,477 game titles and Nintendo’s DS having 4,321 game titles. Apple has created an equivalent to Xbox Live. Game Center creates a leader board of all game apps that are submitted by third party developers. Users are able to invite friends to a player vs. player match, or Game Center can arrange a match with a stranger.

Ads have been another frequent dilemma not only for consumers but also for Apple and third-party developers.

“We have a lot of free or reasonably priced apps. . . we like that, but our devs [developers] have to find ways to make money,” Jobs said. “So our devs are putting ads into apps, and for lack of a better way to say it, we think most of this kind of advertising sucks.”

In order to help developers and consumers, Apple will begin a program called iAds. The program’s goal is to achieve the emotion from an ad on television and also the interaction of an online ad. Apple will have a 60/40 split between the company and other developers, and ads will pop up on a device on an average of ten times a day.

iAds sounds like a blessing toward developers, but problems may ensue for consumers. However, the ads do not appear to be boring ads. In fact, the ads feel like an app. For instance, the Target app asks questions about what gender the user is, what the user likes, and what college the user will be attending. Then, the ad builds what his or her dorm room will most likely look like.

Currently, e-mail is one of the iPhone’s strongest points, but the changing between accounts becomes irksome. To fix this dilemma, Apple has added unified inbox. Instead of switching between a Gmail account and a Yahoo! Mail account, a user can simply view both of the account’s e-mails on one screen. Also, there is the ability to search for a specific e-mail and the ability to open attachments using an app.

Apple’s OS 4.0 will be released this summer for iPhone and iPod Touch devices and this fall for the iPad. Unfortunately for iPhone 3G owners and iPod Touch second generation owners, OS 4.0 will not be able to run certain processes on the device, such as multitasking or folders.

Many people were upset about this; Jobs promptly replied, “Well, a lot of these products that are out there are the most recent products. The old devices will get the update, but they’ll miss some of these features like multitasking. If that’s an incentive for them to upgrade to a new device. . . terrific.” The reason that iPhone 3G is unable to run multitasking is due to the lack of RAM.

The OS 4.0 looks to be a huge change, but may create a lot of angry iPhone 3G customers. Hopefully, Apple will be able to help with the dilemma, but this is highly doubtful. Until OS 4.0 is released, many Apple fans wait in great anticipation.

Opera Mini Frees iPhone Owners

Opera Mini has been the dominating browser for smart phones for the past few years. However, iPhone owners have been forced to use the slothful Safari. Luckily for them, Apple has recently allowed the Opera Mini to create an app for the iPhone.

For iPhone owners, this was an exciting change, because not many users were too fond of Safari. Opera Mini promises a fast, user-friendly browser that can best any other.

Opera Mini does have lightning speed, but its integration with the iPhone was sadly disappointing.

During a speed test on digitaltrends.com, the mobile version of CNN.com loaded in 7.1 seconds in Safari and only 3.6 seconds in Opera Mini. Yahoo! loaded 12.1 seconds in Safari and a quick 4.2 seconds in Opera Mini. In fact, in the time it took to load the home page on Safari, Opera Mini was already finished loading the fourth page. This increase in speed is due to Opera’s streamlined rendering engine and server-side compression.

According to Opera.com, “Opera Mini uses only a tenth of the bandwidth of other browsers, compressing Web pages by up to 90%.” The low amount of data usage can save money for users by using less data than other browsers. This also helps save time when users click back to a previous page. When clicking back, the page immediately loads without any time wasted.

Opera Mini has certain features that Safari does not. Safari lacks the ability to find a certain word or phrase in an online document. Opera Mini can. By pressing on a link for a few seconds, the user can open the link in a new tab. Opera Mini has the ability to let users save a password on their favorite websites. If a user logs into Twitter, Opera Mini will ask if he or she would like to save his or her password. This creates less time spent typing in account names and passwords frequently.

Opera Mini’s tab page is also superior to Safari. When users try to load Facebook in a new tab and open Myspace in another tab, Opera Mini will quickly load both websites. Also, switching between tabs is quicker and easier than pressing new page and scrolling between other tabs.

Sadly, Opera Mini lacks the iPhone integration that Safari has. For instance, Opera Mini has only two zoom settings, too big and too small. On the other hand, Safari has the ability to zoom at many different settings. Opera Mini also does not respond well when users scroll through a page; however, when scrolling through a Safari page, users will see that the page seems to glide with ease.

Unfortunately, another problem that the Opera Mini faces is that iPhone owners are unable to change the default browser from Safari to Opera Mini. Currently, it is highly unlikely that Apple will allow the change in the upcoming update.

Until Opera can fix the very few problems with Opera Mini, iPhone owners are likely to own both, because Opera Mini is free. The release of Opera Mini has caused other browser companies like Firefox to create a browser exclusively for Apple’s products. Hopefully, this surge of browsers that Opera Mini has inspired will allow other web browsers to become available.

iPad: A bite in the apple

Since 1976, Apple has been changing the computer industry. From the Macintosh to the iPhone, Apple has created some of the most innovative designs that have revolutionized the computer industry. The latest device from Apple is the iPad.

The iPad has been released in two versions: the WiFi and the WiFi with 3G. The difference between the two is that while the WiFi version cannot connect to the Internet without WiFi source, the WiFi with 3G can. Other than the Internet connections, there is no real difference between the two versions except the extra $120 for the WiFi with 3G.

From the menu screen to the individual apps, the iPad is basically a super-sized iPod Touch. However, Apple has fine-tuned a few of the apps to work specifically for the iPad. For instance, the YouTube app takes advantage of the larger screen and has updated the new look of YouTube into the app. Some media networks have created apps specially made for the iPad, such as the New York Times. There is also a new app for a digital book library. For the time being, this is not available for the iPod or iPhone. The iPad is extremely fast, especially when browsing photos and YouTube videos. Unfortunately, the size and speed were the only major changes.

The iPad has several fatal flaws: There is no ability to multitask, no camera, and no Flash Player capability.

The ability to multitask is essential to working on any electronic device. Apple’s electronics (the iPod, iPhone, and iPad) seem to lack the ability to multitask. This capability would allow the user to listen to music on Pandora while also reading a book, but the iPad currently lacks this feature. However, the new OS 4.0 for the iPhone will have multitask; it has not been announced whether or not the iPad will also have the ability to multitask.

Although a user is unlikely to take a photo with a tablet the size of a magazine, the camera could easily have been used as a web-cam. A Skype app would have changed the business and personal use of the iPad entirely.

Like other mobile devices from Apple, the iPad lacks the ability to view Flash Player, a software program for viewing animations and movies when browsing the web. This lack of Flash Player will stop the user from being able to view some websites that use animation or video. Apple is currently telling sites to use their HTML 5 which is the equivalent of Flash Player. Many are reluctant to change just for one company.

Although there are several downsides to the iPad, it has several positive aspects. The book reader capability is one of the best features. Although one can read books on the iPod or iPhone, the iPad has a large screen for those who have a hard time reading small print. In comparison to other e-readers like Kindle and the Nook, the iPad is one of the best devices for reading electronic books.

The iPad bests other e-readers with its ability to surf the web or listen to music, which other e-readers cannot do. The iPad also features color which many e-readers are leaving out.

There is an excellent quality video screen, and the device has a faster and newer processor than the iPod and iPhone. The iPad has a nice interface with a picture background, similar to Bing, and the device has a long lasting battery.

As an e-reader, iPad excels, but many were expecting the iPad to replace netbooks. If Apple had added Flash Player, a camera, and a few USB ports, the iPad would be a revolutionary device. However, until Apple changes the problems with the iPad, Apple falls short.