Test Shows iPad 2 with iOS 4.3 Is Incredibly Faster Than iPad 1

Surprise: the iPad 2 running iOS 4.3 is faster than the original iPad running iOS 4.2. According to CNET UK, which had the chance to run a JavaScript SunSpider benchmark test on the iPad 2 during a brief demo at San Francisco, the iPad 2 will outperform the competition and even other Apple’s devices when it comes to web browsing experience and overall snappiness of the browser application. The SunSpider test is usually a good test of how a browser will perform with “heavy” webpages with lots of content and functionalities such as Facebook.

Indeed, Apple itself promotes the new Nitro JavaScript engine that powers Safari on iOS 4.3 as “twice as fast” than its predecessor on iOS 4.2. The original iPad, however, also comes with a slower and non-dual core processor (Apple A4), whilst the iPad 2 will get a dual-core A5 and likely more RAM. These hardware features, together with the iOS 4.3, should make the device a lot faster than iPad 1, iPhone 4 and several Android tablets out in the market or coming soon.

Back to the SunSpider JavaScript test, CNET writes:

Incidentally, when you compare the iPad to the other devices we tested, Android phones and tablets don’t come out particularly well. The Galaxy Tab is more than 3x slower than the iPad 2 in this test, and about 2x slower than the original iPad with the new software. The Google Nexus S smart phone doesn’t fare too well either, at nearly 3x slower than the iPad 2. There’s really good news for iPhone 4 owners out there: when it arrives, iOS 4.3 will deliver a 2.5x speed increase in this test.

The one device we’d like to test, but can’t, is the Motorola Xoom. This tablet has a dual-core processor and runs the latest version of Android, 3.0 Honeycomb.

We will get our iPad 2’s next week and we’ll make sure to run some tests as well to see how the new tablet is really faster than other devices with iOS 4.3 and the iPad 1.

Vodafone Issues Carrier Update and (Finally) Activates FaceTime in Egypt

Back in October of last year, it was reported that several countries in Africa and the Middle East were excluded from Apple’s list of supported countries for FaceTime on the iPhone, iPod touch and Mac. Not only did Apple mysteriously remove mentions of FaceTime from Saudi Arabia’s website, they later confirmed through an official document that carriers were blocking video calling on the iPhone and even went ahead to restrict FaceTime for Mac (which doesn’t rely on any mobile carrier – well, unless you tether your Mac to an iPhone) to specific countries in the application’s preferences. After months of discussions and hacks to enable FaceTime on African and Middle Eastern handsets, the takeaway was that carriers were definitely putting a lot of pressure on Apple for some reason.

The first step towards FaceTime availability in these countries has finally been taken by Vodafone, which has enabled FaceTime in Egypt with a carrier software update for iPhone. As noted by SaudiMac, the update simply adds a boolean string to the iPhone’s configuration file with video calling set to “yes”. This leads us to think that carriers can restrict and restore FaceTime at any time with software updates – something Apple can’t apparently control.

Egypt is still included in the countries with blocked FaceTime, but we guess it will updated soon with possibly more countries receiving carrier updates. [via SaudiMac]

Flickery Giveaway: It’s The iPhoto Alternative For Flickr Fanatics

Flickery for Mac

Flickery for Mac

If you want to bring Flickr onto the desktop with minimal fuss, then you may want to look at Flickery. Drag & drop photos into a library that’s synced online, explore community videos and photos, and add all the metadata you want with tags and comments. A neat trick Flickery has up its sleeve is the ability to see local photos from your area based on location – if you’re visiting in Paris or Rome, you might be able to catch up on familiar landmarks with an assumably endless supply of tourist photos. This feature extends so you can click on alternative locations to plan your next photo-venture with just a few clicks (like Localscope where you can browse around manually). Fullscreen mode is available so you can see photographs in their entire beauty, and you can search by text to find exactly what you’re looking for. Federico reviewed Flickery a long while ago, and he found it to be pretty gosh-darned perfect for his volume of iPhone photos. But if you missed out on our earlier giveaway, we’re giving away three more copies this weekend just for you.

Read more

One Of Five Copies Of CalendarBar Can Be Yours

We reviewed CalendarBar yesterday as the tidy menu drop-down that shows your upcoming events in iOS fashion, and we think it’s nifty enough to give away. First let’s recap: CalendarBar connects with Facebook, iCal, and your Google Calendar accounts to pull in events and display upcoming things you have to do based on your guidelines. I personally only like to see what’s going on today, but you’re free to adjust your own schedules. It’s an event viewer made beautiful, removing the need to keep otherwise large email clients open all day. You can check it out at Clean Cut Code’s product page, or simply visit the Mac App Store for more information. Once you’re done, you can head past the break below for your chance to win a copy of your very own.

Read more

Put Screenshots In Your Sights With Crosshairs For Mac

Want to take screenshots with precision and adjustable controls? Crosshairs for Mac is what you’ll need if you want a friendly menubar utility that slaps screenshots right onto the desktop. Crosshairs is really simple to use:

  1. Click on the menubar icon to activate Crosshairs
  2. Drag the overlay anywhere and achieve a pixel-perfect with the graphic counter
  3. Press the spacebar to take the screenshot
  4. Press the escape key to deactivate Crosshairs

Simple, no? You might be wondering why you’d use Crosshairs over Snow Leopard’s built in screenshot utility, and the answer is simple. With Crosshairs, you can readjust and take multiple snaps consecutively in one row, making readjustments as needed.

There’s quite a few keyboard commands for Crosshairs, and its main purpose is to get dimensions of anything on screen. For pixel pushers measuring apps or windows for Photoshop, Crosshairs conveniently sits above your workspace so you can quickly rule what you need. If you’re working with a dark background, you could always change that overlay from black to white.

You’ll be set back a meager $4.99 in the Mac App Store for an aiming cursor with mad screenshot & measuring skills. Check it out at Giant Comet for more information.

Engadget Reviews The New MacBook Pro→

Engadget Reviews The New MacBook Pro

Nilay Patel at Engadget on the new MacBook Pro:

Of course, there’s no getting around the fact that the MacBook Pro is still incredibly expensive and omits what should be no-brainer features – $2,199 for two USB ports and no Blu-ray drive? – but those are tradeoffs and prices professional Mac users have long become used to, just like this particular MacBook Pro design itself. Something tells us the next revision of the MacBook Pro will offer a more radical external redesign to go along with Lion, but that’s a long ways off – until then, this MacBook Pro represents the best blend of power, portability, and battery life we’ve come across to date.

I’ve never touched a Blu-ray in my life so that’s not really a problem for me, but I can see some Mac users willing to do whatever they want with those discs. Interesting tidbits: FaceTime does HD video calling but Photo Booth stills shoots at VGA resolution; no way to test Thunderbolt right now; it’s just a really powerful MacBook Pro.

In the meantime, AppleInsider reports Apple has enabled TRIM support for bundled SSDs in the 2011 MacBook Pros running Snow Leopard. Great news.

Permalink

BIT.TRIP BEAT For Mac Is Trip-Tastic

CommanderVideo has given you a paddle, and you’ll have to keep up with the beat in order to succeed in BIT.TRIP BEAT on the Mac App Store. It’s like pong and maybe like brick breaker, where you bounce back various “beats” that are streamed across your display in conjunction with the level’s vibe. These aren’t your traditional ping pong bits either – they’re high intensity, moving bullets that bounce and force players to return a variety of patterns without missing. The more beats you return consecutively, the more rewarding the game gets with higher intensity tunes and occasionally trippier visuals. But like Guitar Hero, if you miss a beat, you’ll face the bleak reality of failure. Color fades into monochrome, and the screen beat is reduced to mere 8-bit blips. If you’re not getting those additional bonus points by chaining those high-pitched returns, it’s game over for CommanderVideo.

Read more

Snap for Mac Assigns Keyboard Shortcuts to Apps In Your Dock

If you use the OS X Dock as much as I do, then it’s likely that you’ve always wondered why there’s no easy way to assign a keyboard shortcut for apps placed in the Dock. Snap, a $0.99 app available in the Mac App Store, solves this problem by providing an easy solution to cycle through Dock apps using the keyboard.

Once downloaded, Snap will let you assign numeric shortcuts to Dock apps starting from the Finder and the app right next to it. All you have to do is choose a modifier key that, together with the numbers, will enable you to switch between apps in seconds. The modifier key can be Command, Control, Shift or Option. Personally, I chose Option so I can switch between tabs in Chrome using CMD. If you don’t want to have shortcuts for Dock apps, however, you can also manually pick an app from the “Other” menu and virtually create shortcuts for any app on your Mac.

I like Snap because it’s simple and allows me to quickly open apps using easy to remember shortcuts – always faster than heading over an icon with your mouse cursor. Go download it here.

New µTorrent Beta for Mac Adds Remote Web Access, Scheduler

Popular BitTorrent client µTorrent was updated in its beta version for Mac last night adding support for a series of features that have made the app a must-have among Windows users. Namely, the latest beta for Mac adds the ability to control torrents remotely from any desktop or mobile browser, without having to mess with complicated network and firewall settings. It’s quite handy if you’re that kind of user who likes checking on his torrents on the go and wouldn’t mind adding new ones as well. Everything happens with a Web interface that’s completely accessible from anywhere. Together with the web UI, the application’s design has been improved as well.

Other important features in the 1.5 beta include feeds and the scheduler. While the second option is pretty obvious as it lets you schedule start and stop times for µTorrent (so your internet service provider will be happy), the RSS support is interesting. It allows you to subscribe to torrents’ feeds to automatically download them as new ones become available.

µTorrent is a free download for Mac, and the beta version is available here. [via Cult of Mac]