Tag: iPad

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Black Friday- Apple Style

Apple Black Friday Sale

Looking for great deals on Apple products this friday? Head to the Apple Online Store for Apple’s annual Black Friday Sale!

You can save $101 dollars on iMacs, MacBooks, MacBook Pro’s, and MacBook Air’s, as well as $41 on iPads and iPod Touches. You also can save on accessories for the iPad, and there are many huge savings from brands other than Apple. Apple is pushing the iPad before the Holiday season in attempt to boost sales and beat the growing competition, and you can get the best prices on iPads and iPad accessories because of this.

Go to http://store.apple.com/us/browse/campaigns/holiday/giftguide/black_friday?aid=www-naus-bdfo-fy11-bf00001&cp=bdfo-fy11-bf0001 to see the list of all the deals on the Apple Store.

Also, if you are shopping online or even going to stores to find the best Black Friday deals, make sure you have your iPhone handy with these great Black Friday Apps. First, The Dealmap is a great app for Black Friday that finds deals in your location and brings up Google Maps with directions to the stores offering discounts and information on the discounts. This free app works year-round, and is very helpful if you’re planning to go to multiple stores searching for deals today. Want to make sure you have the best deal for a specific item? Use Shop Savvy, a free app that, when you take a picture of the barcode of a product, gives you the best deals for that product and shows you which stores around you have that item in stock. The Black Friday App allows you to browse Black Friday ads from many different stores and retailers, as well as create a Black Friday shopping list. This app can be helpful in solving arguments with salesmen about incorrect pricing, as well as creating a list of the best deals on products you want.

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iOS 4.2 Software Update Released Today: The Breakdown

If you’ve been to the Apple website recently, you may have noticed the “iOS 4.2 is here” button under the huge Beatles sign. This seemingly insignificant link is actually a major, much anticipated update for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

What’s so great about this update?

Well, for iPad users, this update is the long awaited entry into the features introduced the the iPhone with the release of iOS 4.0.

Multitasking

That’s right: Multitasking on the iPad. This popular iPhone feature finally makes it way to the iPad and, I have to say, I’m impressed. I have been waiting for this feature to appear on my iPad for a long time, and the wait is finally over. As I do not own an iPhone, I was unfamiliar with this feature, and was surprised at how quickly I learned how to use it and how helpful it really is.

Folders

Folders, another popular iPhone feature, is also making its debut on the iPad. This allows iPad users to keep their apps organized in simple to use folders on the Home screen. This makes it easy to find your favorite apps, as well as prevents you from having to look through 5 pages of apps to find a calculator.

Game Center

Game Center, the iPhone/iPod Touch service that allows you to compete with your friends and see their scores on select applications finally makes its way to the iPad. Now you can finally prove that you are better at Real Racing HD or Flight Control HD than your friends!

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Sure, this is great for iPad users, but what about my iPhone? Well, there are also a couple cool new cross-platform features.

AirPrint

The first of these is AirPrint, the new feature, integrated into specific apps, which allows you to print to any printer shared by a Mac computer. For example, to print a webpage in Safari, all you have to do is touch the button button, then touch print. This feature first requires you to turn on printer sharing on a Mac computer, so it is pretty much useless for Windows users, but it’s still a pretty neat feature.

AirPlay

A second new feature introduced in iOS 4.2 is AirPlay. This feature allows you to stream digital media wirelessly to your Apple TV. This means that you can instantly switch a movie you are watching on your iPad to your Apple TV when you return home from a trip, or blast your music from your iPod Touch out of your TV’s speakers from any room in the house. It also allows you to play movies and TV shows rented on your iPad or iPhone on your Apple TV, which was impossible to do before. This feature could boost sales of the Apple TV before and during the holiday season, as it adds new and helpful features and ties the Apple TV to Apple’s more successful products.

Find My Device

Find My Device, a cool feature that used to be bundled with the MobileMe suite (which requires a $100 dollar per year subscription), is now offered on the app store for free if you update to iOS 4.2. Although this is incompatible with the iPhone 3GS, this app is very helpful if you misplace your iPhone 4 or iPad.
Find Text

Now you can search for text within Mobile Safari. This feature, although minor, is very helpful and I’m surprised it was not offered on previous versions of iOS.

Overall, this was a very important update for the iPad, and added many new, long awaited features to every Apple iDevice such as printing and streaming to an Apple TV.

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AAPL was up 6.63 points today to close at $313.36 per share.

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New iPad comes with a camera

The iPad is a technological advancement in Apple’s product line. Many people say that it is just a big iTouch, but it is more then just that. The iPad is a do it all, large screen,  awesome device, and it just got better. According to blogs.barrons.com, OmniVision will supply CMOS image sensors for a second generation Apple iPad. The second generation iPad is said to release in the first quarter of 2011. According the Detweiler Fenton, an investment firm, has said that the iPad will come with two cameras. The iPad contains a 5 megapixel camera and a VGA camera and most likely will support Apple’s facetime video chat software. Apple has been the top of this certain industry because of their innovative designs and their willingness to change their products. The new iPad will a good change because many consumers like Facetime and having the ability to take pictures.

I think this is a  great move to have cameras on the iPad. Many consumers like cameras because they get to capture memories and cameras are very useful in many situations. The iPad now has an advantage over many eBook readers because the iPad can do many more things then just read a book. You can go on the internet, play games, watch movies and listen to music. With the addition of a camera, Apple has leaped over the competition and in my opnion, taken the top spot in ereaders.

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Apple TV vs Google TV

Apple and Google have competed with each other year after year. When Apple comes out with a new iPhone, Google comes out with another Droid phone. The competition has been great for the markets and nobody has complained. I believe that the competition brings many great debates between these two major corporations. The newest debate is between Google TV and Apple TV.

We all saw this in the near future, Google trying to compete with Apple TV and it has come out with a bang. Google features 4 GB of RAM and a 1.2 GHz Intel Atom Z515 that is featured in many netbooks. Google TV has dual HDMI and dual USB ports. Google certainly has a faster processor than Apple and is not afraid to show it. The TV box itself is bigger and not the most attractive thing next to your TV. It definitely is not home friendly and I would definitely try to hide it so it is not an eye sore. Google has brought in almost every internet source to push into this little box. It boasts Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube, NBA Game Time, Blip.TV, VEVO, Pandora, and Napster. Google runs their Android O.S. to power their TV. It is a proven O.S. that is built in the Android phones. The problem with the Andorid O.S. is that it has no regulations. Many users will soon come across bugs and will start to notice that Google TV will run slower. Google will be releasing an sdk for developers to start making their own apps. Apple TV does not have this feature, but an App Store may be coming soon. Google does support flash, something that Apple cannot say and probably never will on their devices. Google lets you “Fling” which allows you to start a show on your phone, pause or stop it, and pick it back up again on your TV. Many of these features are very handy when it comes down to the wire, but Google may be trying to push this feature just so that it looks better on paper.

Apple has certainly made a name for themselves in this department with the Apple TV. Apple TV has been around since the start of 2007. Apple has 256 MB of RAM and 1 GHz from the Apple A4 chip. The A4 chip is also in the iPad and iPhone and is extremely reliable and nobody can say that the A4 chip is not great. The A4 chip has impresses us all on the iPad. The iPad looks extremely and runs almost flawlessly.  Apple TV has an HDMI port, optical audio, and micro-USB. Apple TV is a looker, it is definitely prettier then the Google TV, but that is what Apple does best. They make great innovative designs that attract many buyers to the product. It is definitely something that you want to be shown right next to your TV. Apple TV has iTunes, Netflix, YouTube, and Flickr. Apple definitely has less video and non-video content but, that is something that Apple is not afraid of. Apple has iTunes which is extremely proven to hold many videos and music videos. Apple does have set backs because of what Google TV has brought to the table. Google has had more time to make the Google TV but Apple will not take any excuses. Apple is a lot easier to control, considering the fact that everyone is familiar with Apple’s devices. Apple TV features AirPlay which allows users to stream content from their iPad or iPhone to their TV. You can also start watching a movie on your device, then continue from where you left off.

Both of these products are extremely good. Apple hasn’t disappointed us again with their simple and easy interface that makes it very user friendly. Google has definitely surprised me with all of their features that makes Apple TV look slower and smaller. Google boasts more content and video and non-video content. Apple of course has their own remarkable operating system, but the android O.S. isn’t to bad itself. Many people will have trouble choosing between these two products because they are just that good. The competition has been brought forth from Google and they definitely have no disappointed. People that are die hard apple fans, or like the user friendly and sleek design. On the other hand, if you are willing to try something new, Google TV will certainly match every expectation you have for the device. Google has certainly not disappointed us and has made a strong statement that better things will come in the future for Google.

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Competition Among Pads

Tablet computer “pads,” that is. Yes, other tech giants, along with some start-ups, are once again following Apple in an attempt to gain a portion of the market that Apple created.  The WeePad, JooJoo Tablet, and HP Slate are among the competitors that announced or released tablet computers within the past month.

Clearly, there is a pretty good market for tablet computers, as Apple announced Monday news that it has sold 1 million iPads in the first month!  But will other companies be able to capture the same appeal that Apple has with the iPad?

Analysts think not.  The International Data Corporation says that “Anybody can make a tablet. I could go to Taiwan, hire a contract manufacturer, and make ‘Bob’s tablet,’ but the hard part is doing the software and getting the applications.”  If any company CAN do that though, it would be HP.

Though it is perhaps possible for HP to take some of the market away from Apple, in the long run I don’t think it will make much of a difference for Apple.  All of these other companies are followers. But the leader remains the leader.