In Depth: Top 20 best iPad apps
The iPad has arrived, in the US at least – and that means deciding which apps you should purchase and download right away.
We tested the launch apps and we've ranked them based on how they test out, if they make use of the larger screen, and any added perks.
1. Kindle for iPad
Why list a free e-book reader as the top pick when Apple's own iBook is included? Ask anyone who owns a Kindle – with this free app, you can download every book and magazine you have ever purchased for free and read them on the iPad.
The Kindle reader doesn't have the annoying grayscale book spine of the iBook reader, and books through Amazon are cheaper. There's also a much wider selection. And, one of the best ways to use the iPad is for reading books, mags, and newspapers.
2. Blackboard Mobile Learn
The second free app that tops our list, Blackboard Mobile Learn is a classroom learning tool where teachers can make assignments, interact with students, write blogs, and post grades. It requires a backend infrastructure. Currently available only for higher-ed schools, Blackboard will add K-12 support by June.
3. Scrabble
Scrabble is another app that is just an ideal fit for the iPad. The classic word-cross board game is well-designed with wooden tiles that look realistic. With the accurate touchscreen control, it is easy to slide tiles around on screen.
4. Groovemaker
Groovemaker is like having a DJ on your iPad. There's an easy to way to record and mix loops, add drum parts, and adjust sound levels to make a song. Samples clips sound great, especially on earbuds. The app is ideal for live music at parties as well.
5. Things
We know all about Things – the well-regarded task manager for iPhone and Mac. On the iPad, once again the app just has a new life because it's like carrying around a clipboard with all your to-do items in one easy-to-access bucket.
6. Fieldrunners
Fieldrunners – the classic tower defense game for iPhone where you drop cannons to shoot advancing armies – has always needed some extra screen real estate. On iPad, the game looks crisp and colorful, but most importantly there is more room to plan out your strategy and divide up your units in a logical array.
7. Netflix
Netflix is on so many devices it is becoming a legitimate standard for streaming movies over the internet. (It's on the Roku player, Samsung BD-C6500 Blu-Ray player, and many others.) Now, it is on the iPad, and it works: you can even set up a movie queue and search for films and shows, unlike other embedded devices that force you to add instant movies to your queue on your PC only.
8. Pianist Pro
MooCowMusic got an early jump with its iPhone port of this useful piano tool. On the iPad, the keys are large enough to actually play a real song. There's plenty of sampled piano sounds – even a church organ – and a quick way to record.
9. WeatherBug Elite
WeatherBug Elite is a perfect example of why the iPad is changing computing: it shows a well-detailed map of your exact location, forecasts, video, and even camera feeds from your area. There are even contour maps for wind speed and temp.
10. FlightTrack Pro
This iPhone port works exceptionally well on the iPad, mostly because you can see a large map that shows your flight departure and arrival. Pop-ups after you enter the flight info remind you about when the flight is ready to take off.
11. Pages
Apple knew full well that Microsoft would not move an inch to support the iPad, so Pages is the best (and only!) word processing app. Combined with the iPad Dock with an Apple Bluetooth keyboard, it is possible to do real work on the iPad, even if Pages lacks some key features – such as HTML mark-up support.
12. Tweetdeck
Another brilliant port to iPad, Tweetdeck shows you the feeds of your Twitter friends, your own mentions, and your direct messages. It works well because there is enough screen space to actually read all of this content.
13. Keynote
Keynote is worth the price of admission if only because you can set up an attractive slideshow – using Apple's templates and stock artwork – and run it on the iPad's crisp screen – which is viewable from side angles during a meeting.
14. Mirror's Edge
The PC and console versions of Mirror's Edge never really caught on due to minimalistic gameplay mechanics. On the iPad, the story is still confusing (is she running from enemies, trying to collect info about them?) but the action is better. You flick and jump to avoid obstacles in a side-scrolling window, and there's a few interesting additions – such as tilting the screen to run faster.
15. ABC Player
The ABC Player on the iPad is a must download – it provides the best way to watch TV shows from the US network for free. Most importantly, it works quite well over a Wi-Fi connection without some of the latency problems on the desktop.
16. Labyrinth Lite HD
More than just a simple wood-block puzzle where you move a marble from one end of the box to another, Labyrinth Lite HD has expanded to provide a tougher challenge with switches, rotating dials, and other obstacles. The iPad version is just right: it really feels like you are playing the classic puzzle game.
17. Yahoo! Entertainment
We were surprised to discover this colorful, well-designed app – which shows you TV listings for your area as well as video snippets and news.
18. SketchBook Pro
We're big fans of SketchBook on the iPhone, and this high-def version just makes it even easier to sketch out an artistic image. The tools are amazingly advanced, mirroring what you might see in Photoshop or in a real artist's shop.
19. OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle has never quite fit a device like it fits the iPad. This diagramming tool – which you can use to create flowcharts, sketch out ideas, and even plan an office floorplan – is just pick-up-and-go easy on the smooth touchscreen.
20. AIM
AOL still exists? Yes – in theory. On the iPad, this instant messaging client looks great and, coupled with the responsive soft keyboard, is actually one of the best ways to communicate with friends, short of a video chat in a future iPad version.
Four iPad apps we didn't include
You might wonder – why did we not include a few notable apps? Here are some of the near-misses and omissions along with why they did not make the list.
1. The Elements
This is an interesting app that points to some future innovations – think doctors who look up health charts and show you videos of your torn ligaments. The Elements shows you a rotating image of periodic table elements and a wealth of info culled out of Wolfram Alpha, but it's mostly smoke and mirrors. There's a lot of info, but it is not that interactive.
2. Adobe Ideas
Adobe's first try at an iPad app is essentially a sketchpad that does not do nearly as much as Sketchpad Pro. It's really one of the poorest apps on the iPad.
3. Touchgrind HD
Touchgrind is great on the iPhone, but for some reason the game feels underpowered and simplistic on the larger iPad, especially when games should be a vast improvement over any of the smartphone options.
4. LogMeIn Ignition
LogMeIn is a handy way to tap into your PC or Mac remotely. Unfortunately, for a jaw-dropping 20 pounds, and buggy operation, the app just doesn't make the cut.
Five iPad apps we want to see
Compared to the 150,000 apps available for the iPhone, the iPad has a long way to go. Here are some ideas for apps we want on the device – sooner rather than later.
1. Drum machine
Imagine tapping on a realistic-sounding drum kit – with a way to easily repeat the bass rum or cymbals and record loops, then export them. Looptastic HD offers some basic loop creation tools, but we're hoping for a full drum set rendition.
2. Hulu or Boxee player
The ABC player is great, and Netflix works well for movies, but we'd prefer a player that aggregates content from many sources and lets you access them easily.
3. Music recording
The iPhone has plenty of apps for recording music, but the larger screen on the iPad and slick portability means this device could become a musicians best accomplice.
4. Role-playing games
Otto Matic is one early example of a top-down game – but we'd like Sony and others to get on board with some robust role-playing games, or even Final Fantasy, with brilliant graphics, sound, and a deep storyline – with CGI cutscenes, please.
5. Social networking
At present, the iPad is a bit light on social networking apps, such as a true Facebook client and one for LinkedIn. If these companies can somehow integrate with email and the photo app we'd be extremely pleased and impressed.
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Kids backed to kickstart rise of the touchscreen
Half of kids under the age of 15 will be bought touchscreen computers like the Apple iPad rather than using mouse and keyboard by 2015, according to the latest research by Gartner.
Analysts Gartner believe that computers bought for kids and leisure will have a 50/50 shot at being a touchscreen PC, but that only 10 per cent of computers bought for business will be utilising the technology.
The latter needs little explanation, with typing being kind of important for productivity, and not even Apple managing to provide a tactile comfortable typing experience to date on a capacitive touchscreen.
But the interesting assertion is that touchscreens will start to take a massive slice of the market for computers bought for kids.
Younger generation
"What we're going to see is the younger generation beginning to use touchscreen computers ahead of enterprises," said Leslie Fiering, research vice president at Gartner.
"By 2015, we expect more than 50 percent of PCs purchased for users under the age of 15 will have touchscreens, up from fewer than 2 percent in 2009.
"On the other hand, we are predicting that fewer than 10 percent of PCs sold to enterprises in 2015 for mainstream knowledge workers will have touchscreens."
Give work the finger
Gartner's Ms Fiering believes that it will be the consumer market that provides the push for touchscreen technology into the work place.
"As with many recent technology advances, touch adoption will be led by consumers and only gradually get accepted by the enterprise," she added.
What will be different here is the expected widespread adoption of touch by education, so that an entire generation will graduate within the next 10 to 15 years for whom touch input is totally natural."
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Google adds Buzz to Android and iPhone Gmail
Google has added additional Buzz support to the mobile browser version of Gmail for the iPhone and Android handsets.
This means that Buzz will be available as a tab when browsing to your mobile inbox, rather than a separate web app.
Google says that this will make it easier to see when people @reply to you, comment on something you've posted, or comment on a post after you.
Just like real life
"Now, you'll see buzz in your inbox on your phone just like you do in the desktop version of Gmail, complete with the little Google Buzz icon," says Google on its official blog.
"When you open a buzz post from your inbox, you can perform all the standard functions, such as liking the post or commenting, just as you can from the desktop Gmail inbox."
Quite why you'd do this when Gmail integration is so tight on the phones natively (especially the Android handsets) we don't know.
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The Gadget Show magazine out tomorrow
The Gadget Show Magazine will hit the newsstands on Thurdsday, with the one-off collector's special bringing all the coolness of Five's popular technology show to print.
Featuring content from presenters Jason Bradbury, Suzi Perry, Jon Bentley and Ortis Deley, the magazine is being published by Future – the publishers behind TechRadar.
The mag will cost £5 and includes a run-down of The Gadget Show team's 50 Greatest Gadgets Ever (we're hoping that the wheel makes an entry) and ten cutting-edge pieces of tech to watch out for in 2010.
Buzz
Nial Ferguson, Publishing Director for Future's Technology Lifestyle & Entertainment portfolios said: "Since we announced The Gadget Show Magazine special earlier this year, we've seen a real buzz among The Gadget Show fans and huge interest among commercial partners for the title.
"That just shows how valuable and relevant print can be, if you get the proposition right.
"We've combined Future's unrivalled expertise and experience in the consumer tech sector with The Gadget Show brand and the team's enthusiasm, passion and unique insights, and produced a magazine that is truly special.
Five alive
Emma Derrick, Five's Commercial Development Controller added: "Our ambition is to take The Gadget Show beyond the confines of TV and develop it into a major consumer technology brand.
"The Gadget Show Magazine takes us into print for the first time, and we're delighted with the end product, it looks fantastic.
"I really hope all of the show's fans enjoy it."
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Apple admits to iPad Wi-Fi issues
Hundreds of new owners of Apple's iPad have been reporting problems with the way it connects to Wi-Fi networks.
Users are complaining of weak signal and the iPad not automatically connecting to routers when coming back into range.
Apple's support page acknowledges the problem, but places the blame at the feet of the router itself:
"Under certain conditions, iPad may not automatically rejoin a known Wi-Fi network after restart or waking from sleep.
"This can occur with some third-party Wi-Fi routers that are dual-band capable when using the same network name for each network or using different security settings for each network"
Easy fix?
According to Apple, the solution is to make sure the networks are named correctly (if you're using a b/g/n capable router, for instance) or reset your network settings.
However, this doesn't help if you're connecting to a public router, where settings cannot be changed.
A weird fix for the lack of auto-connect has appeared on the Apple forums: apparently if you have the brightness set down to minimum and the iPad goes to sleep, the Wi-Fi does not auto-connect – but turn it up and problem is resolved.
This hints at a bug in the power management of the iPad – with the unit jumping into battery-saving state when the screen is dimmed right down.
But that doesn't resolve the weak signal issues, which could be a headache for Apple should it be proved to be a hardware issue.
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In Depth: Does Steam have an unfair monopoly over PC gaming?
Valve launches its Steam game-download platform for Apple Macs this month, with the Half Life publisher planning to release all games and all updates simultaneously for Mac and Windows in future.
It's a massive deal, but at the same time it also begs the question: "Does Steam have an unfair monopoly in the PC gaming market?"
What about all those other PC gaming download services that are currently available? And what of Microsoft's much-hyped 'Games For Windows Live' service on PC? Has Valve simply Steam-rollered all over them?
UK games industry analyst Nick Parker, from Parker Consulting, doesn't think so. "I would say that digital distribution is so nascent that it would be churlish to suggest anybody has an unfair monopoly at this stage as there is such a long way to go and the prospects for current or future technologies will change accordingly," he says.
"Furthermore, there are so many alternative gaming experiences available online which would impact on the success of Games for Windows Live, so picking Steam as the culprit would not be considering the whole market picture."
STEAM ON: The most popular download service for PC gaming
Steam is currently the most popular download service for PC gamers, but there are dozens of alternatives available for publishers to place their games on.
"Impulse, Direct 2 Drive, and Metaboli have most, if not all, of the publisher's major releases," says PC Gamer Editor, Tim Edwards. "The reason gamers flock to Steam, though, comes from convenience and user experience. The Steam client is just better than the rest of the opposition."
A fair monopoly?
Michael French, Editor of UK games industry trade journal MCV also acknowledges Steam's stronghold: "I don't think it would be a stretch to say that Steam has a monopoly on PC games – but I wouldn't necessarily brand it unfair," he says.
"The PC games market has always been quite 'Wild West' - it can give life to anyone willing to innovate and pioneer new business models that are properly supported. It's a market that serves mass market consumers and core, savvy, technically minded players, but both demographics have (as the whole world has) slowly migrated online. The fact that Valve was there waiting for the switch isn't their fault – it shows they are savvy."
French thinks there is still space for lots of players in the PC gaming download market "when it comes to providing a formal or unified system for patches and multiplayer – hence why we have seen the likes of Impulse emerge relatively quickly and Microsoft try its own hand at it in Games For Windows Live (GFWL)."
Aside from questions as to the value of Microsoft's 'GFWL' offering these are all fair points. Steam clearly does currently own the 'nascent' PC gaming download market, purely because Valve has been a very successful first-mover and has created a superb service for PC gamers that just works really well. It owns the market because nobody has done anything that offers gamers anything of better value.
Yet.
Even Valve's latest competition is quick to give Steam its dues, with Gian Luzio, COO of new download service Green Man Gaming telling TechRadar: "Well... actually no, they don't have a monopoly - they have a great service. It is the responsibility of their competitors to encourage more gamers into the market by offering a different and compelling offer."
If you are not a PC gamer, then you may be wondering what the hell Steam is. (And if you are a PC gamer, you may well be wondering why anybody would want to use anything else).
As well as developing and publishing such heavy-hitters as Half-Life, Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead, Steam is Valve's real jewel in its gaming crown. It is the PC market's leading platform for digital game downloads and online play, with over 25 million registered members right now. An impressive number, and one which is surely set to get a serious boost when millions more Mac gamers come online later in April.
Valve now considers Mac to be what it calls a "tier-1" platform. Additionally, a new feature called Steam Play will allow gamers to play the same game on a Windows PC and a Mac for no added cost.
And while many PC gamers still scoff at the mere idea of using a Mac for playing games, Valve's latest announcement is clearly major news for the future of gaming on home computers. If nothing else, legions of casual gamers on Macs will finally realise why the rest of us have been banging on about Half-Life for the last 10 years…
APPLE GAMING: Mac fans finally get Steam access this month
Valve co-founder Gabe Newell told gaming site Videogamesdaily.com back in 2007 that he didn't think Apple had "ever taken gaming seriously… None of the things developers ask them to do are done. And as a result, there's no gaming market there to speak of."
That's obviously no longer the case. Whether it be the raging success of the iPhone and the iPod touch in the gaming market or whether it be down to other plans from Apple's Cupertino HQ that we are not yet privy to, Apple is now a serious player in the games industry. And it is clear that Steve Jobs wants a slice of the gaming pie.
A classic monopoly?
Steam doesn't have what any well-trained economist would identify as a classic monopoly right now, mainly because it still shares the market and retail space with the physical products (ie those boxed games that sit in shelves on shops on high streets – remember those?). It does, however, own around 70 per cent of the PC download market right now. So this doesn't mean some of the ways it's behaving aren't anti-competitive.
"Steamworks definitely could be construed as anti-competitive, as its matchmaking system isn't open and as it feeds people back to Steam," said one rep from a competing PC gaming download service who wished to remain anonymous. "Even [Valve] being a developer and a publisher at the same time means that other developers feel like they could be second-rate citizens (or at best, on the same level as all the indie games on the service)."
Basically the reasons Steam rocks are the reasons why it's anti-competitive – total feature integration, low overheads, a half-decent social network and a huge user base currently affords Valve a huge bargaining power in the PC gaming market. And good on them, too.
"I wouldn't say that it's flawless, though, or that another competitor couldn't come along with better features – just that it's got such a huge market share that, like World of Warcraft, it's highly unlikely anyone will be able to lure them all away," said the aforementioned rep from one of Steam's competing download offerings.
DIRECT2DRIVE: Competing service is giving Valve a run for its money
There is also the issue of open-ness. Direct2Drive isn't to be underestimated in this space, with its sister company GameSpy making active moves recently to embrace open ID platforms, "which puts it in line with wider online trends," says MCV Editor Michael French.
"D2D is the second-biggest of these distribution/service sites, but has tried to make both the commercial and quirky ends of the PC games spectrum meet. Unfairly, people tend to forget about them – but the fact it has grown steadily over the past seven or so years just proves that PC games services can flourish in the face of big rivals."
TechRadar spoke to a number of developers to gauge their thoughts on Steam and the PC download market. Jiri Jakubec, Sales Manager at IDEA Games told us, in no uncertain terms:
"There is no doubt that Valve's Steam is the biggest and most successful digital download distribution platform in the PC market. It came first on the market with a huge audience base, large product range and user-friendly services (profiles, marketing activities, promotions, price saving actions, etc)."
However, the developer is quick to add that there are lots of competitors already out there "some are serious, some are minor… which does indicate that there isn't a Steam monopoly… if other companies in the same business can grow in strength, then that is a clear signal that there is nothing like a monopoly in any traditional sense. "
Few developers or publishers will ever dismiss or criticise Steam (publicly, at least) purely because Valve is a vitally important business partner for them right now.
"However it's also true that Steam does not automatically take all games, so some independent developers may still be left in the dark," notes IDEA's Jiri Jakubec.
BLACKLIGHT TANGO DOWN: Ignition's new game is its download hopeful
Ajay Chadha, Head of Worldwide Publishing at Ignition Entertainment is currently working on 'Blacklight: Tango Down', described as one of the most advanced games ever released solely through downloadable channels. When we asked him if he thought Steam had a monopoly in PC gaming, he told TechRadar:
"The short answer is, of course, yes, but if you look at the fact that Steam was one of the first services to market and they brought all that great Valve content with it, then you can see why they have become the biggest portal for digitally distributed PC games.
"There is room in the market for other retailers as the Digital Download space expands, the services with the best content will be the ones that thrive."
And what of Microsoft?
Microsoft's own Games For Windows Live initiative is certainly struggling, particularly when compared to the runaway success of Steam in the PC gaming market. But is Valve somehow to 'blame' for this? Should Games For Windows Live be allowed to just die on the vine (as Edge recently asked)?
Or instead, does Microsoft need to step up its game in the PC market and make something new and better that gamers are willing to pay for? As avid PC gamers, we all hope that it is the latter...
In May 2007, shortly after the launch of Vista, Microsoft launched Games for Windows Live, which Edge described as, "part of a larger initiative that includes branding of all PC game boxes and a rating system to simply identify which games your computer is capable of running... an application and service that offers online matchmaking, auto-downloading of patches, a downloadable content marketplace and, in some cases, cross-platform play with Xbox 360 users. "
You can see the thinking behind it – "let's make Xbox Live, but for all those millions of casual PC gamers instead." Yet it has, for all intents and purposes, pretty much failed to make its mark.
MICROSOFT FAIL: Gamers are not happy with GFWL so far
So why has it failed?
Edge blames Microsoft's (ostensibly laudable) attempts to curb PC gaming piracy, noting that, "the real problem is a player's online profile… online profiles work in much the same way as Xbox Live: you sign up, create a Gamertag and, by being signed in, collect Achievements as you play games."
However, there is a key problem, which is that, "if you start a game while logged in to your account, your saved games are then irrevocably tied to that online profile. If your internet connection is ever unavailable, or if the Games for Windows Live servers aren't working, then those saves are inaccessible. You cannot play your single-player game."
Games For Windows Fail?
"The broad goal we had was combining the world of consoles and PCs," says Peter Moore, previously VP of Microsoft's entertainment business division as Games for Windows Live. "Games for Windows was a way of reinvigorating the PC business by getting the power of Microsoft behind it. The Games for Windows logos that you still see today on games were about bringing a clear, consistent experience that says: 'This game works.'"
But it doesn't work.
It has, to date, failed, because it has not given gamers a service that makes their PC gaming – online or offline – in any way better. Look at one of the comments on the Edge forum, which sums it up nicely: "Steam dominates because it does so many things well, and the other download services do so many things badly. G4WL is bad, sure, but it's no worse than, say EA's Download Manager."
Steve Hogarty, Editor of PC Zone is equally as dismissive about Microsoft's GFWL offering, telling TechRadar: "The reason Games for Windows Live is failing isn't anything to do with Steam. Simply put, it's a clunky, restrictive and quite frankly rubbish service that nobody would willing opt in to."
Graham Smith, Deputy Editor on PC Gamer informs us that: "Games For Windows Live was launched with the purpose of making PC gaming more accessible. It aimed to do this in three ways: 1) with a cohesive ranking system for system specifications, 2) by providing easy online networking, achievements and DLC, and 3) by labelling all PC games on shop shelves with a single respected brand.
"It has failed on all counts. The ranking system has been abandoned, leaving the question of whether a game will work on your home PC as baffling as ever. The multiplayer service is fundamentally broken, making DLC hard to buy and saved games hard to access. And that single Games for Windows brand, although it still appears on a lot of PC game boxes, is a sign only that the game will cause you extra hassle."
Some in the industry are not so instantly dismissive of GFWL, though, with MCV Editor Michael French telling TechRadar: "It's debatable as to whether GFWL has been a success or not, depending on where you sit in the industry – it has given clearer signage and branding to PC games, for instance, which publishers appreciate.
"But it's widely agreed that the certification process, while a 'necessary evil' for closed, controlled formats like consoles, can seem too stringent for gamers who want fast improvements delivered to their games when necessary and developers who want to provide those updates. To me that suggests its limitations haven't come from Steam's success as such, but rather its own shortcomings.
"I wouldn't write Microsoft off, though," adds French, "they made sounds about making GFWL more open and friendly overall at GDC 09, some of which have already been rolled out, and they will probably continue to support it for some time. I think trying to predict its demise could suggest an unrealistic 'David vs Goliath' scenario – just because a big company tries something that doesn't quite work doesn't make it an instant write-off."
Microsoft claims it's happy with GFWL. A spokesperson for Microsoft told TechRadar: "We're very proud of the progress we've made with Games for Windows Live in a relatively short amount of time. Steam is a great service that has been on the market for five years. Both services offer different features, and we're going to continue building on the Live service and community to deliver unique features and a seamless PC gaming experience."
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Sony Ericsson massively overhauls Xperia X2
You might vaguely remember the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2, before it was canned for a UK launch. Well, that hasn't stopped SE bringing out a massive update for it.
The new firmware brings all manner of changes to the Windows Mobile 6.5 handset, such as FM radio and video calling.
The update also offers stability improvements and performance tweaks – things we'd reckon the UK public would have been crying out for had it actually been released.
Touch-tastic
Other enhancements include better touch navigation thought the home screen, faster GPS locking, and overhauled dialler pad and even more responsive keyboard.
Now, we're sure we're not alone in wishing that this phone would at least be offered over here so we can make up our own minds whether a Windows Mobile 6.5 device is worth a punt before the might of Windows Phone 7 lands later in the year.
If it was a performance issue that blocked networks from stocking it, then fingers crossed that this new update might change their minds.
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Gary Marshall: Just because the iPad's simple, doesn't mean it's for idiots
As you might have spotted, there's been a lot of talk about Apple's new iPad. Some people like it, some people don't like it, some people are daft enough to spend $500 on something they're pretty sure they'll hate only to discover that they hate it and the usual PC versus Mac flame wars have kicked off.
But there's something different this time, something quite worrying: the oft-spoken claim that if you want something simple to use, you're an idiot.
Even BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow, someone we have enormous respect for, was guilty of it. In a post slagging off the iPad, he slammed Apple for appealing to "that same stupid stereotype of a technophobic, timid, scatterbrained mother... listen to the pundits extol the virtues of the iPad and time how long it takes for them to explain that here, finally, is something that isn't too complicated for their poor old mothers."
We're not going to say that, but it's not because our mothers can't code. It's because the iPad isn't actually simple enough for our mums. It still needs a computer to sync with, and so far iWork doesn't appear to support wireless printing. Those are deal-breakers for us. For now, our mums will continue to swear at their laptops, which make everything much more complicated than it needs to be.
Maybe it's not for mums, though. Maybe it's for kids. Adam Kmiec says: "Is it a game changing device? Will you love it? The simple answer is YES… so long as you have the mindset of a 3 year old." What evil hath Apple wrought? "Everything about the iPad interface is linear. Every desired final action is accomplished through a series of taps. Want to read a book? Cool. Tap the home button. Tap the iBook app. Tap the library view. Tap the book you want to read."
In what demented, upside-down world is that a bad thing?
Before becoming a writer, your correspondent spent many years teaching absolute beginners how to use computers – and I still do a monthly tech surgery where people call in with their computer problems. Here's the truth: computing is far too complicated for most people. Supposedly every-day technology is built by geeks, for geeks.
Some of us are out of touch
Stripping down your computers to component parts, making your own circuit boards out of cheese and doing 432 things at once while ripping a DVD to Ogg Theora is what geeks do. It's not what real people do. My mum wants to look at Flickr, do some online banking and write the odd letter. That's it.
Others want to do Facebook and Farmville, or The Sun and Spotify, or... you get the idea. Ease of use is much more important to those users than the ability to peek at source code.
The iPad certainly isn't perfect and Apple is certainly guilty of various bad things including DRM, premium pricing and control freakery.
But to look at the iPad and ask, as Kmiec does, "what consumer problem does it solve?" without seeing that the problem is the sheer complexity of modern PCs and Macs, or to get irate, as Cory Doctorow does, because you can't take it apart with a screwdriver and turn it into a robot horse, shows just how badly out of touch we geeks are with the rest of the world.
The iPad may not be the answer, but at least somebody's finally asking the right questions.
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LG leaks new Android 1GHz superphone
We've always been fans of LG's phone designs, and it seems the new Android handset from the company follows in the same tracks.
The LG LU2300 has been leaked in pictures onto the internet, and looks like LG is finally bringing out the big guns in the Android game.
The pics show a phone with a sleek chassis with a four-line QWERTY keyboard, nestling underneath a WVGA (800x480) capacitive display.
Super phone
The LU2300 also has a 1GHz processor and runs Android 2.1, bringing it well up to speed with the higher end Google-powered phones.
However, there is a little worry that this phone won't make it over to the UK – it features a DMB tuner which is a very Asian-centric feature to add.
Samsung has been fairly active with Android so far, with the Galaxy and Galaxy Portal already released (the latter packing Android 2.1).
LG has only released the Intouch Max GW620 so far – we're still waiting for it to being some more higher-powered Android phones to the UK quick sticks.
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Rose replaces Adelson at Digg, kills Diggbar
Kevin Rose has replaced Jay Adelson as CEO of popular aggregator site Digg, and one of his first moves will be to kill the controversial Diggbar.
Adelson stepped aside to "incubate some new business ideas over the next twelve months."
"As the economy exits a very deep recession, I believe that it is an excellent time for new companies to develop," he said.
War of the Rose
That brings founder Rose to the fore – and his appointment is likely to prove popular with Digg's vociferous fanbase.
Rose will now oversee a critical period for the site as it evolves, and has already made it clear that the controversial Digg bar will be for the chop.
"Framing content with an iFrame is bad for the Internet," said Rose in a blog post.
"It causes confusion when bookmarking, breaks w/iFrame busters, and has no ability to communicate with the lower frame (if you browse away from a story, the old digg count still persists).
"It's an inconsistent/wonky user experience, and I'm happy to say we are killing it when we launch the new Digg."
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Windows 7 Service Pack 1 leaks out
The first service pack for Microsoft's Windows 7 has leaked, with the first major update for the popular operating system still looking likely to arrive in the coming months.
According to Neowin, a build from March 27 has been spotted on the internet, although major updates like USB 3.0 and enhanced Bluetooth support have not been confirmed.
Build 6.1.7601.16537.amd64fre.win7.100327-0053 is reportedly quick to install, which underlines the fact that major service packs are something that Microsoft is keen to get away from.
Windows Update
With the Windows Update system, many of the minor changes are rolled out to customers in regular update cycles – meaning that the likes of the now legendary updates for Windows XP, which effectively changed the entire OS, are meant to be a thing of the past.
But Service Packs – still useful to computer manufacturers and businesses and still wanted by wary consumers – are still around, and SP1 is on course for beta release in June and full release in September.
Windows 7 has been a phenomenal success for Microsoft, staving off suggestions that the Windows brand has lost its appeal in an increasingly online world.
The operating system has been both critically and popularly acclaimed and has already breezed past 10 per cent share in the computer market.
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ICD Gemini Tablet turns heads
An Android tablet with the 1GHz Tegra 2 SOC from ICD has attracted early interest, as the world looks for the first rival to the Apple iPad.
The ICD Gemini is an 11.2 inch tablet that offers higher specs than the Apple iPad, including 3G connection that allows mobile phone calls and, wait for it, a replaceable battery.
According to Engadget, the ICD Gemini offers 1080p video playback, SD Card reader, FM radio, a GPS chip, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, MicroUSB connectivity and cameras on front (2MP) and back (5MP).
Android
The tablet will use the Google-powered Android operating system that is proving so popular on mobile phones, although you suspect that Chrome OS could well pop up later in the year.
Of course, the UK release date and price (or global, for that matter) are not yet known, but it does serve to highlight what many believe a tablet should bring with it in terms of functionality.
Manufacturers like Dell and Samsung are already talking bout their own tablet offerings, and may well use the criticisms of the Apple iPad to shape their own wares.
Apple's latest foray into tablets with the iPad has nevertheless quickly become a much-wanted gadget, and will arrive in the UK later this month.
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Google unveils car dock for Nexus One
Google is now stocking car docks for its Nexus One 'superphone', utilising the phone's turn-by-turn navigation to turn it into a sat nav.
Although the Nexus One has yet to go on sale in the UK, Google is keen to push the benefits of its HTC built smartphone.
The Nexus One: Car Dock has built in speakers and volume controls to add a little volume and control to the driver and comes with the Car Home app which loads automatically.
Dock it
"The Nexus One Car Dock is the perfect place to put your phone when you're in the car," says Google's Nexus One page.
"In addition to holding your Nexus One, the car dock also charges your phone's battery, lets you use your phone handsfree, and provides easier access to voice and navigation apps."
Of course, turn-by-turn navigation is not yet available on Google Maps in the UK, so this is by no means as essential a purchase over here – but it does seem likely that the functionality will arrive at some point soon.
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Bebo to be sold or closed soon by AOL
AOL has announced that it is planning to get rid of ailing social networking site Bebo.
The internet giant said it was unable to provide the funds necessary to keep up with the bigger social networking sites.
To that end, it will either be selling Bebo in the near future, or writing off the $850m (£417m at the time, according to the BBC) it paid for the site two years ago and shutting it down.
AOL cited the explosion in popularity of sites like Facebook as a reason for the decision.
Declining
"Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space," said Jon Brod, Executive VP of AOL Ventures in an email to employees.
"AOL is committed to working quickly to determine if there are any interested parties for Bebo."
UK users might be surprised at the decision, given that Bebo is still one of the leading social networking sites in the UK.
But in the larger and more lucrative US market it is falling quickly behind the likes of Facebook, prompting AOL to make this decision.
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HTC's phone success is bringing company profits
HTC has announced a huge profit for the first quarter of 2010, riding the wave of its critically acclaimed smartphones to report a net profit of just over 5.03 billion Taiwan dollars (c£103 million).
Considering the massive global impact of the HD2 and of course the UK's current hottest phones the Desire and Legend, HTC's promising start to the year still surpassed expectations, although the company did dip slightly from the last quarter of 2009.
White label to hero
HTC has gone from a respected but low key phone manufacturer making Windows Mobile handsets to be branded up by other companies (like the O2 XDA range) to one of the most exciting mobile brands on the planet.
Although it is still making goods for others – like the Google Nexus One for example – it is phones like the HTC HD2, perhaps the finest current Windows Phone, and the Android-toting Hero, Desire and Legend that have catapulted the company to a whole new plane.
HTC believes that it is 'successful branding strategies' that have helped them ride the wave, and it seems likely that if sales of the HTC Desire match the amount of interest being shown in the UK, it will continue its current upward trajectory.
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Samsung shows off four new Bada phones
Samsung has used a Russian developer conference to show off its plans for its proprietary smartphone platform.
The Korean company will be releasing four new phones in the near future based on Bada, on top of the forthcoming Samsung Wave.
There's very little information on the new phones apart from the slide depicting them - but we can see they'll all be cheaper than the Wave.
Two of each
The new Bada phones will come in two forms, two full touchscreen devices and two with horizontally-sliding QWERTY keyboards, like the Genio Slide.
The Samsung Wave has been tipped to cost north of £450 SIM free, with the newer Bada phones coming in between £400 and £150.
Samsung also showed slides depicting how it believes it will be the number one phone supplier in the world this year - moving onto 40% market share compared to Nokia's 38%.
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In Depth: 9 tech firms that dug their own graves
Whenever there's a tech boom, there are always companies that just don't learn from others' mistakes, overstretching and eventually falling over themselves in pursuit of greatness. Or, more often, cash.
Many companies have learned the hard way that the only way to succeed in technology is to innovate - or you will soon perish. Mind you, for some it wasn't for the want of trying.
Here's a raft of companies that really should have seen that the end wasn't that far away...
1. Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics (SGI) made its name in the heady days of high-performance computing when companies would purchase one workstation system for several thousand pounds. Today, with low-cost GPUs from AMD and Nvidia, as well as integrated graphics from Intel, graphics workstations are now comatose - even if Dell and HP still enjoy a booming business selling high-end PCs. Today, it's fitting that new tech giant Google occupies the former SGI campus in Mountain View, CA.
2. Napster 1.0
The demise of Napster is well documented: the service started originally by Shawn Fanning became a frequent target of litigation and was eventually shut down for copyright violations. However, this particular tech story has a silver lining. The Napster brand was revived by Best Buy (the company that competed with Circuit City, see below) and is now a thriving commercial entity for legal music streaming.
3. Osborne Computer
One of the most famous tech implosions occurred at Osborne Computer, the company Adam Osborne founded in 1980. The story goes that Osborne pre-announced a new product that would not be available for a few months, so customers stopped buying the current product. This marketing snafu, called the Osborne Effect, is one reason Apple is so hush-hush about new product timelines.
4. Webvan.com
One of the most public disasters from the dotcom era, Webvan.com - a company that delivered groceries you ordered on the internet - had some serious financial backing and plans for fast expansion. Turned out that it was too soon and went bankrupt in 2001. The brand is now owned by Amazon. Although internet groceries are now commonplace in the UK, there simply wasn't enough demand to counteract the vast sums of money the site spent on infrastructure.
5. Circuit City
This US-based electronics retailer simply couldn't fend off the competition - namely, from another super-store in the US called Best Buy (which is also in the process of launching in the UK). One reason the company went belly-up has to do with its sales incentives - even though they dropped commissions eventually, the chain became known for pushy salespeople, not to mention high prices, misleading ads, and poor inventory management.
6. SCO
While technically still alive, software company SCO has recently fired their CEO after filing for bankruptcy in 2007 and seems to be near death. The company made its name going after copyright infringements and causing several messy legal entanglements, mostly over Linux trademarks such as UNIX (owned by Novell) and by suing Chrysler over the UNIX codebase (SCO lost). The lesson here: when you start a tech company, it's important to focus on what you do, not what other companies do. Another lesson: Linux is not exactly a cash-cow for litigation.
7. eToys.com
Another dotcom disaster, eToys.com's main problem had to do with keeping enough inventory around -- the "big box" retailers such as Toys R Us always had an advantage in that its stores are essentially a large warehouse with plenty of toys available for purchase. In the late 90s and around 2000, etailers lacked the technical ability to manage inventory, having just the right amount of product to meet the demand. Amazon has now turned this into an elegant ecommerce science.
8. Amp'd Mobile
Like the inventory management problem at eToys.com, Amp'd - a mobile phone service for video and other content that was a precursor to the apps you see on smartphones today - had trouble keeping up with demand, especially in terms of customer support and media distribution. And that despite funding from MTV and Universal. The lesson for app company start-ups: make sure your company can scale with demand, likely through a cloud provider for your IT services and alongside companies like ZenDesk that can help you with customer support.
9. TrueSAN Networks
Lack of funding led to the 2003 demise of TrueSAN, a cloud storage provider based in San Jose, California. But it wasn't through a lack of initial cash - TrueSAN raised over $30 million in investment. The company became a poster child for the cloud storage market and making sure, if you do store company data in the cloud, that the provider has strong enough financial backing, a healthy infrastructure, and at the very least some guarantees about what happens to your data if they do go belly up.
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Blu-ray discs soaring to 128GB capacity
The Blu-ray Disc Association has launched two new standards designed to increase the capacity and capability of Blu-ray discs.
The new BDXL discs will have a write-once capacity of 100GB and 128GB, and re-writable discs will be capable of storing 100GB of information.
These discs will reach said capacities by having up to four recordable layers, improving both the quality and the quantity of information stored.
These BDXL discs will initially used for businesses for storing information, but the Blu-ray Disc Association says they will be used for consumers in 'areas where BD recorders have achieved broad consumer acceptance'.
Intra-galactic Blu-ray for me
An Intra-Hybrid Blu-ray Disc (IH-BD) has also been unveiled, with locked content at the heart of the disc and a separate re-writeable layer which can track user data.
The BDA says "this allows for consumer specific applications where combining published content with related user data on a convenient, single volume is desirable".
Sadly, these discs won't work on current Blu-ray players, meaning you'll have to fork out for a new Blu-ray player. But at least the new units will be backwards compatible, so your 'Speed Racer' Blu-ray won't be obsolete.
We're still waiting to find out whether the UK is deemed a location where Blu-ray recorders have reached 'broad consumer acceptance' and a release date, but you'll find out when we do.
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Sharp seals deal with DivX
Sharp's Aquos LE820 televisions will now be able to play DivX video, after a partnership between the two companies was announced.
The LE820 series already boasts Sharp's fourth coloured pixel technology and the televisions will now benefit from DivX compatibility.
"DivX, Inc today announced a new partnership with Sharp Corporation to enable high-quality DivX video on digital TVs," said DivX's release.
"Consumers who purchase the newly DivX Certified AQUOS LE820 TV line will be able to enjoy DivX HD 1080p videos in the DivX format using the TV's USB slot."
Compression
"Typical HD video requires a considerable amount of digital storage space, but DivX HD video provides a superior media experience by maintaining the highest visual quality while significantly reducing the video file size," added DivX.
"Using DivX technology, users can fit approximately two hours of high-quality DivX HD video on an 8GB USB thumb drive."
Sharp's LE820 series comes in 60, 52, 46, and 40 inch sizes, boast 4ms response time and has 120hz frame rate conversion.
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20 million iPads to be sold by 2012
Early sales of the iPad might have been decent for Apple, but new forecasts have predicted that the future is even brighter for Apple's new device.
Opinion might be divided on whether the iPad is a truly necessary device, but that hasn't stopped iSuppli predicting that Apple will shift 7 million units in 2010.
Those sales will apparently double to 14.4million in 2011, and will soar past the 20 million mark in 2012.
Lower limit
iSuppli has labelled these estimates as 'conservative', citing a number of factors that could improve the impending sales.
Flash support - which it's hard to believe Apple will ever incorporate - and quickly updating the OS to include new features will help spur sales, as will the fact Apple is the prominent tablet supplier at this nascent stage.
Apple will be releasing information on the new iPhone 4.0 software this week, which may include some information on how the iPad and iPhone will interact and offer hints on how Jobs' tablet device might evolve.
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Opinion: Why internet devices like the iPad are a bad idea
Some you win and some you lose. As it goes, Apple's new iPad makes me feel like I'm first past the post.
Not because it's going to change anyone's life for the better, but simply because it confirms what I've been saying for longer than I care to remember about mobile internet devices, or MIDs.
Not to put too fine a point on it, MIDs are a bad idea. And make no mistake: the iPad is nothing more than a MID. I could, of course, count the ways in which the iPad fails. I might wax proselytical about the oversized screen and how it bloats the device's proportions unnecessarily.
I could wail and gnash that the lack of support for Flash video is utterly bonkers in a device Apple claims is better for web browsing than a laptop.
Equally, there are legitimate complaints to be made regarding Apple's decision to run a Mickey Mouse smartphone operating system – one that lacks proper multitasking support – on a far larger and supposedly more capable device.
Likewise, the total absence of expansion-friendly ports, sockets and card readers is a galling limitation that smacks of control freakery. Whatever Steve Jobs claims, magical the iPad ain't.
But ultimately, debating the pros and cons of the iPad's weak execution is irrelevant and plays into the hands of Apple fanboys. It gives them the opportunity to point at the widespread criticism levelled at the first iPhone and confidently imply that the trash talkers have got it wrong once again.
No, the real problem with the iPad isn't poor execution: it's the broken MID concept. For starters, the fact that even a flawed MID such as the iPad is better for internet browsing than the best smartphone counts for nothing. You can't slip the iPad or any other MID into a trouser pocket.
What is it?
To put it another way, MIDs neither replace nor compete with smartphones. As Apple itself says about the iPad, it's a new category of device, not a replacement. However, what MIDs do have to compete with, contrary to the preachings of his royal Jobness at the iPad launch event, are laptops in all shapes and sizes, including netbooks.
It's difficult to think of more than a small handful of distinctly niche applications for which the tablet or slate format factor is preferable to the classic fold-out screen and keyboard design.
Indeed, Apple's promotional video for the iPad, replete with images of the hapless user contorted into a slouching, knee-high, feet-on-coffee table position, tells you all you need to know about the difficulties of the slate form factor. Anything other than perfunctory prodding at the screen is a royal pain in the backside.
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Microsoft quietly drops Windows Phone 7 Series
Headline writers will be rejoicing - Microsoft has dropped the 'Series' from Windows Phone 7 Series.
As you can imagine, the new name will simply be 'Windows Phone 7', bringing it much more in line with the standard Microsoft branding.
We were a little perplexed about why Microsoft went with such a long-winded title, as it went against the new 'simplistic' ethos of Windows Phone 7.
Moving forward
It's cool to see the Windows Phone, rather than Windows Mobile, part of the name has stuck - a stark reminder that Microsoft is keen to distance itself from old and creaking mobile OS.
The news was announced on the Windows Phone official Twitter page, where it was dubbed a 'Series Finale'.
We'd like to see Microsoft going one step further and becoming enigmatic with all its branding - instead of Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7, just '7' and '7p' for arty effect.
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iPad's innards exposed via X-ray
Not only has the new Apple iPad been torn apart by the team over at iFixit, it has also been X-rayed, to allow us all a much closer look at what is inside the new device from Cupertino.
iFixit, working with reverse engineering firm Chipworks, tore apart and X-rayed the iPad's central processing hub.
Package on package
The resulting findings confirm that the A4 is built using a "package on package" method, so the 256MB of Samsung-provided SDRAM sits right on top of the CPU, which is reductive to latency and energy use.
iFixit concludes that the iPad seems to be running on a Cortex A8 – but Engadget notes that "their assertion that it couldn't be a Cortex A9 MPCore inside is inaccurate, as those chips also come in single-core options.
It will be interesting to compare performance with Samsung's own Hummingbird chip - designed by Intrinsity, the chip company Apple is rumoured to have recently acquired.
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Microsoft set to launch own-branded Pink phones
Microsoft looks set to launch its own hardware in the shape of the much-vaunted Pink phones next week.
Reuters is quoting a 'source close to the matter' that the phones are set to be announced next week, with a different moniker than the Pink codename.
The new phones, which have been mentioned in various leaks over the last year, will be QWERTY-enabled messaging devices, with a strong focus on the social networking youth.
Samsung has been attacking this demographic with its Genio/Corby range, low cost phones with lower-end specs but instant access to social networking.
Sidelining Sidekick
Microsoft acquired Sidekick (a similar messaging-centric device) manufacturer Danger, and ever since has been tipped to produce its own branded devices.
It's likely that Sharp will be the manufacturer of the new Pink phones, which used to make the phones when Danger produced the Sidekick range.
There has been a lot of talk around these phones for a number of months - first that there will be no Microsoft phone (at least under the 'Zune Phone' guise) according to Ballmer, then that internally the staff hate the idea.
Apparently all will be revealed next week - but you can bet that whatever is launched will be a sideshow to the main Windows Phone 7 circus.
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Gary Marshall: Why today's Digital Economy Bill debate is a matter of life and death
Here we go again. Gordon Brown's been to see the Queen, and a month today we'll grudgingly traipse into the polling stations to decide which bunch of yahoos will ruin the country for the next four years.
The bread and circuses of a general election campaign could be dangerous, however: as we know, the government wants to ram the Digital Economy Bill through Parliament while everyone's attention is elsewhere. It gets its second reading today, and that's probably the last chance for MPs to stop the bill going through without proper scrutiny and debate of its more dangerous ideas.
Dangerous? We think so. If you haven't seen it already, look at collateralmurder.com. The site shows footage of US soldiers shooting unarmed civilians – killing adults and wounding children – with armour-piercing rounds from a helicopter.
The video comes courtesy of WIkileaks, a website the US Pentagon would really like to get rid of. Under the proposed Digital Economy Bill, the Pentagon might get its wish.
The bill doesn't include anything about banning sites politicians and the military don't want you to see, but it doesn't need to. By including a clause that could enable the blocking of sites accused of copyright infringement, the bill could block WIkileaks, and collateralmurder.com, and any site that attempted to mirror the clip. The footage, like many things Wikileaks is given by whistleblowers, is copyrighted material.
Alarmist? We don't think so. Last year, Wikileaks ended up blocked for daring to talk about, er, online censorship. When Wikileaks posted details of the sites blocked by the Danish government's internet filters, the Australian government promptly added the relevant Wikileaks pages to its list of banned websites. It wasn't illegal to read it, but linking to it could lead to fines of up to AUS$11,000 per day.
Could the Digital Economy Bill really block Wikileaks? Probably not, because any attempt to take down Wikileaks or collateralmurder.com would quickly cause a Streisand Effect: the more you try to silence something the more people shout about it.
But that's partly because Wikileaks has a very high profile, so if you blocked it lots of people would notice. Under the proposed Bill, Wikileaks' successors could easily be strangled before many people even know they exist.
And of course, just because you can't really block Wikileaks' content doesn't meant politicians wouldn't be dumb enough to try it.
We're not against the Digital Economy Bill. It's an enormous piece of legislation, with important plans for digital radio, TV and other media. But the Devil is in the detail. Some of the clauses are dangerous, and the one about site blocking has the potential to be the most dangerous of all.
The government doesn't intend to use the bill to block sites it doesn't approve of, but then it didn't intend its anti-terrorism legislation to be used against Icelandic banks or dog owners either. That was bad law; the Digital Economy Bill could turn out to be even worse.
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