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iPad 2 First Impressions: Is This The iPad I Was Waiting For?

Today I got my iPad 2. A WiFi 16 GB Black model, bought in the United States and shipped through UPS’ Worldwide Saver Express. After a bit of trouble with the Italian customs (luckily, I didn’t pay additional clearance fees) and a missed delivery because I didn’t wake up in time this morning (hey, I stayed up until 6 AM last night reading Instapaper), I finally managed to get my hands on the iPad 2.

Before I share my thoughts: this is not a review. I’ve had the device for less than 6 hours and I’m just getting started with it. Rather, this is a collection of thoughts from a blogger who waited 10 days for the shipment of a device he had to write about regardless of the lack of availability in his country. I watched the unboxing videos, read Cody’s articles, saved dozens of reviews in my Instapaper queue. But getting one, in spite of the fact that I basically knew everything about it, is different. Read more

Google Latitude for iPhone Gains Check-In Capabilities

With an official announcement on the company’s blog, Google unveiled a few minutes ago a new version of Latitude for iPhone. Google Latitude, also available for Android devices, uses the iPhone’s GPS functionality to display your current location on a map and allows you to see what your friends are up to. The new 2.1 version, available here, lets you “check in” places and automatically be checked out if Latitude is set to update your location in the background. In this way, your friends will not only see your location, but know exactly what you’re doing – say drinking coffee at a nearby Starbucks. A huge Check In button in the app makes the process easy, and privacy settings let you share the check in with everyone, your friends only, or make it entirely private.

Tap the “Check in” button to start checking in at nearby places. Keep checking in every time you visit your favorite places to start gaining special status there. You’ll not only progress to become a Regular, VIP, and then Guru at your favorite places, but if you’re near Austin, Texas, gaining status lets you unlock check-in offers at over 60 places.

Just like with sharing your location, you can control your Latitude check-in privacy. Checking in is 100% opt-in, and you can choose to share any check-in with your friends on Latitude, publicly on the web and your Google profile, or just yourself.

With this update Google is clearly trying to create an alternative to popular check-in services like Facebook Places and Foursquare, which have become the de-facto standards for sharing your location and earn points or badges. We don’t know whether the new Google Latitude will take off or not, but you can check out the app here and tell us what you think. It’s a free download.

Mac OS X 10.6.7 Now Available [Direct Links]

Apple just released Mac OS X 10.6.7. The new version is available now in Software Update (or through the direct links below) and weighs at around 300 MB. The new build includes a series of fixes for Back to my Mac, SMB servers and the new MacBook Pros.

The 10.6.7 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

Improve the reliability of Back to My Mac

Resolve an issue when transferring files to certain SMB servers

Address various minor Mac App Store bugs

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4472.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

We also appreciate this very specific Mac App Store fix:

Resolves an issue in which clicking the Updates tab in the Mac App Store could cause the Mac App Store to become unresponsive.

Additional improvements after the break. Download links:

- Mac OS X 10.6.7 update

- Mac OS X v10.6.7 Update Combo

- Mac OS X Server v10.6.7 Update Combo

- Mac OS X Server v10.6.7 Update

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#MacStoriesDeals - Monday

If you didn’t already know, we’ve set up a new twitter account for Deals, it’s @MacStoriesDeals - please follow for Deals-only posts. We’ll tweet the daily deals there as well as exclusive weekend deals too. Help spread the word! Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

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The Most Expensive iPad 2 In The World→

The Most Expensive iPad 2 In The World

If you’ve always wanted to spend £5,000,000.00 to buy the most expensive (and exclusive) iPad 2 in the world, look no further than Stuart Hughes’ latest creation: a 3G iPad 2 encrusted with diamonds, gems, gold, a 75 million year old Ammolite rock and a 65 million year old dinosaur bone. Seriously.

This iPad 2 is a mix of non-sense and luxury made for those willing to throw their money away.

Undoubtably the world’s most unique gadget is the Ipad 2 Gold History Edition. Encrusted with 12.5 cts of ‘I’F’ Flawless diamonds, a magnificent total of 53 individually set sparkling gems dwell beautifully in solid 24ct Apple logo with rear section formed again in 24ct gold weighing an immense 2,000 grams. The unrivalled imagination towards the craftmanship of the iapd is down to its main front frame which is made from the oldest rock the world has to offer in the form of Ammolite , sourced from Canada this stone is over 75 million years old. However to make this masterpiece even more individual, sections of a 65 million year old T-REX Dinosaur’s thigh bone was splintered and then shaved into the Ammolite , then finished off with ultimate jewel , as single cut 8.5ct flawless diamond inlaid in its own platinum surround with 12 outer flawless diamonds. A magnificent combination of top of the industry technology and unique thought were involved in creating this piece of History.

I’m disappointed, however: Hughes didn’t made a diamond-encrusted Smart Cover. I was thinking to buy this iPad, but the lack of Smart Cover: Dinosaur Edition is forcing me to reconsider my purchase. I guess I’ll just go with a new Ferrari, the new one with an iPad-enabled dashboard.

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New York Times: A Future iPhone Will Include NFC, Perhaps Not The iPhone 5

After all the recent rumors and speculation about Apple willing to implement Near Field Communication (NFC) technology into the next-generation iPhone, The New York Times weighed in earlier today to confirm that according to “two people with knowledge of the inner workings of a coming iteration of the Apple iPhone” a future version of the device will indeed include NFC.

The NYT report is rather curious as they’re not sure whether or not Apple will deploy this feature in the iPhone 5, set to debut this summer:

According to two people with knowledge of the inner workings of a coming iteration of the Apple iPhone — although not necessarily the next one — a chip made by Qualcomm for the phone’s processor will also include near-field communication technology, known as N.F.C. This technology enables short-range wireless communications between the phone and an N.F.C reader, and can be used to make mobile payments. It is unclear which version of an iPhone this technology would be built into.

The New York Times also claims that according to another person familiar with Apple’s plans the iPhone will use NFC to enable mobile payments tied to users’ iTunes credit – something that was also reported in the past months, although some people speculated Apple could also consider providing an option for billing users through their carrier, rather than iTunes. At this point, however, it seems very clear that Apple will strongly invest in the iTunes payment option to give users the possibility to “keep it all together” in iTunes. Currently Apple has more than 200 million active accounts in iTunes with credit card information stored on their servers.

In the past months, rumors suggested Apple could also rely on NFC and MobileMe to enable remote computing and usage of App Store apps. Several reports pointed to the iPhone 5 featuring / not featuring NFC, and others also reported such a feature was being considered for the iPad. An e-Wallet application for iOS also made an appearance in a patent design published last year.

iPad 2 + FaceTime for Mac: Enabling Auto-Answer For Remote Monitoring

So I just got my iPad 2, and right after restoring from an iPad 1 backup and syncing all my apps, I wanted to try FaceTime on it. Mainly to test the quality of the cameras (they do decent videos, but they’re not really that great) and the FaceTime application itself, I immediately set up a new email account to use with the iPad 2.

FaceTime on the iPad asks you to create a new email address on first launch; however, you can further tweak your settings, Apple ID and available email addresses in the Settings app under “FaceTime”. In this tab, I logged in with my Apple ID and assigned a new email – different from the ones I use on my MacBook Pro (Apple ID) and iMac (2nd email address). On the iPad, I set up a third email so I can make sure calls are always routed to the right device. I noticed that the verification process failed at first (I didn’t get any email from Apple), so I deleted the email address, entered it again and waited for the confirmation email. After a few minutes, FaceTime was correctly functioning on my iPad 2.

With FaceTime up and running, I wanted to give a shot to an old trick we first covered in October: auto-answering FaceTime calls on a Mac. Why would you want to do that? Simple: to turn your desktop computer into a remote monitoring tool for when you’re not around. Stuff like remotely checking on your room or home office. I leave my computers always on most of the times I have to go out, so it’s not a big deal for me. Plus, I think it’s just neat that you can fire up your iPhone or iPad 2 while on the go to call your Mac and automatically see what’s going in front of the iSight without needing a person to hit the Confirm button. Read more

TweetMag 1.1 Released: Faster, Full Readability Integration

When I first reviewed TweetMag back in December, I called it the “most beautiful Twitter app” for the iPad. Lots of things have changed since then, but I stand by my statement: the iPad 2 is now available and Flipboard went under a major update that refined the UI and added Instagram integration, yet TweetMag still holds up as a gorgeous way to consume Twitter as a magazine specifically built for the tablet. There are some similarities with the iPad app of the year 2010, Flipboard, but with the recent 1.1 update TweetMag takes another important step to become the most beautiful alternative Twitter app.

TweetMag 1.1 is faster. The backend was entirely rewritten, and you can immediately tell the difference in speed – especially on an iPad 2. Images load faster, tweets are parsed in seconds, content appears within moments after choosing a magazine from the top “rack”. The speed issues encountered by several users in the first version have been fixed, and rarely did I stumble upon wrong headlines or non-loaded images in TweetMag 1.1. There are still some minor issues here and there (1.1.1 update coming soon?), but this thing is simply faster now. The new system that powers TweetMag definitely shows its capabilities.

Two new features in TweetMag 1.1 allow you to create a magazine out of your favorite tweets (and consequently add tweets to Favorites directly within the app) and link to your Readability account to create a Read Later mag. We’re big fans of Readability here at MacStories, and full integration with the service is more than welcome. You can add articles to your reading queue or simply head over to the rack to check out your Read Later mag – made of articles you have saved in your online Readability account. Instapaper support is gone, but it might be coming back in a future update. We appreciate the developers’ choice to support publishers by adding Readability right into TweetMag – which still grabs links off any Twitter timeline to present articles in a uncluttered layout with great-looking typography.

Other new features in 1.1 include a Featured section with the top publications worth following, and the possibility to add or remove friends from the app. TweetMag is a $2.99 purchase in the App Store for a limited time, and it’s still the most beautiful Twitter app, now with a faster engine. Recommended.

Giveaway: iPad 2 or iPhone 4, QuickShot Is The Camera App Integrated With Dropbox

QuickShot for iPad

QuickShot for iPad

QuickShot is the camera app Apple would make if your photo library existed in Dropbox and not iPhoto. It’s designed to be simple and pleasant to use, working in the background to upload photos as you attend to other tasks and will import old favorites from your Camera Roll so they’re shared to the cloud as well. Configure your iPhone’s camera flash, enable geotagging, set focus and exposure, then snap pictures from the front or rear facing camera for scenery or photo-booth style pics. Right from your camera controls, you see your uploads with the tap of a button, and send your photos off to custom locations for sharing. Federico has taken a look at both the iPhone and iPad versions of QuickShot (and it’s all one universal app), and while you may be familiar with its photo snapping abilities, you may wondering about video. To be implemented soon, you’ll be able to record video from your iPad 2 or iPhone 4 and upload the raw file just as you do with photos. HUGE! Whether you’re working in the field or sharing photos on vacation instantly with friends and family, everyone could use a dose of QuickShot for iOS. It’s only $0.99 in the App Store if you can’t wait, but you might want to stick around. We’re going to run a relatively short giveaway so you too can have a wireless library, and you’ll want to hurry past the break to join in.

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