The Plaza Hotel Deploys iPads in Every Room

The five star The Plaza hotel in New York city has recently deployed iPads to every single one of it’s rooms and has a seriously cool iPad app running on them. The application allows the hotel visitors to do everything from turning lights on, changing the air conditioning, making restaurant reservations, ordering amenities and much more.

According to The Plaza’s general manager they had previously tried a similar system that was a touch panel but it “wasn’t sophisticated enough for what we wanted to do” and the iPad was chosen because “it is a great piece of equipment that is here to stay and won’t disappear tomorrow.”

Jump the break for a demo of the iPad app, made by Intelity, and its wide range of abilities.
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Best Buy Tag Suggests White iPhone Coming Within Weeks

It’s pretty clear at this point that the white iPhone 4 is launching in the next few weeks. Engadget just got a picture of a Best Buy tag spotted in Houston over the weekend, and it points at an AT&T white iPhone sold at $599 off contract.

This Best Buy tag adds speculation to several reports surfaced in the past weeks, such as production issues fixed by a new Japanese paint and the unit spotted on various international carrier websites.

The mythical white iPhone really seems to be coming now, indeed in Spring 2011.

“The Daily” Super Bowl Commercial [Video]

In case you missed it a few minutes ago, here’s the commercial News Corp. ran during the XLV Super Bowl to promote its iPad-only newspaper, The Daily. The ad is admittedly cool and nicely animated, too bad we’ve seen the app is nowhere near the fluidness from the video below. If The Daily was as fast and stable and snappy as the app from this ad, it would be perfect.

Nice commercial, but we’re still waiting for a better app. Read more

iTunes Launches Genius Recommendations For iPhone, Hide Your 80s Playlists

The best thing about iTunes mobile would have to be shopping for music on your iPhone or iPod touch: it’s so much easier to browse through all the latest tunes in the mobile store than through iTune’s feature heavy shopping experience. For those who rely or enjoy Apple’s Genius recommendations, it’s officially live on your iPod touch or iPhone: everything you bought on iTunes will help you find new movies to watch, music to listen to, and TV shows to check out. Simply visit the iTunes app on either device to check out the new feature: no download is required to experience the thrill of 80s one hit wonders populating the Genius brain box.

[via TUAW]

Hacker Brings FaceTime to iPad

In spite of the iPad lacking a camera (that should change very soon with the iPad 2), hackers have managed to port the FaceTime application for the iPod touch 4th gen to the tablet and make it work even without access to any kind of camera. The hack, called Intell, requires a pretty laborious installation process you can check out here, and involves changing permissions and values to a series of files inside the iPad’s filesystem.

The FaceTime app has been resized to scale nicely on the iPad’s larger screen, although it’s very clear that is an iPhone / iPod touch app running on a screen that’s not meant for it. The hack works from iPad to any other FaceTime device and, of course, iPhone users calling iPad owners will only receive audio. The app works over WiFi as required by FaceTime.

With the next-generation iPad coming in a few months with FaceTime capabilities it shouldn’t be so hard to wait for video calling on the tablet, but if you really want to try it now, follow the instructions and check out the demo video below. [via 9to5mac] Read more

iPad Helping Remove Bookshelves, Save Space in Japan

With Japan’s cramped living quarters, arrival of the iPad and other tablets and it’s non-existent e-book market, there has been an explosion of start-ups offering consumers to turn their paper books into e-books that can be used on such tablets as the iPad. Japan currently has the largest market for paper books and magazines, worth over $24 billion a year, yet the e-book market is currently earning less than $1 billion per year, driving customers to alternatives such as scanning books into PDF’s for use on tablets and e-readers.

One such start-up, Bookscan was founded by Yusuke Ohki and childhood friend, Shinya Iwamatsu last April and has done gangbusters, expanding its workforce to 120 people in less than 12 months. Ohki said to Bloomberg “the iPad’s release is the biggest factor in making this business possible” and said his inspiration for starting the business was the 2000 physical books that were crowding out his small Tokyo apartment.

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greenpois0n Available for Windows, Mac Version Updated

A few hours ago the Windows version of greenpois0n was made available (as was promised) and an updated version of the Mac client, RC5 Beta 3 was also released.  This jailbreak solution allows for iOS devices running 4.2.1 to be jailbroken and be untethered, which means the device can be restarted without requiring a program to boot the device.

If your iOS device has already been jailbroken with redsn0w, just run greenpois0n and it will untether it without removing anything. There is no word yet on whether a Linux version is in the works.

To download head to greenpois0n.com for the Mac and Windows downloads, or alternatively the mirror site.

[Via iH8sn0w on Twitter]

Dragon Age II Coming to the Mac on the 8th of March

Dragon Age II will be brought to the Mac simultaneously as it is launched on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows on the 8th of March this year. The game, which is available for Pre-Order now for $59.99, is the sequel to the widely acclaimed epic, Dragon Age: Origins that was launched in 2009 by BioWare.

Game Tree Mac will be porting the game to the Mac, a company known for other Mac ports such as the Grand Theft Auto trilogy, Sims 3 and Prince of Persia. A simultaneous release of Dragon Age II on the Mac is certainly quite a boon for Mac gamers who typically have to wait months if not years for a port and perhaps signifies a growing Mac gaming market.

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Apple Steps Up Washington Presence, Hires New Lobbyist Firm

Official lobbying disclosures show that Apple has hired a new lobbying firm, Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock to help lobby Federal politicians as issues such as taxes, privacy, patent and trade reform get underway this year. Apple has typically shied away from most Washington affairs, only spending $1.6 million on lobbying whilst competitors such as Microsoft spent almost $7 million in 2010.

Politico understands that the new firm began representing Apple from February 1st and amongst the lobbyists handling Apple’s work is the firm’s president Mark Isakowitz and Kirk Blalock, both of whom have extensive experience in Washington. Politico also makes note that:

Apple has received scrutiny from regulators, who have eyed its App Store guidelines and its handling of Flash video on the iPhone. At the same time, Capitol Hill has ramped up debate over issues such as online privacy and competitiveness – topics that could affect Apple’s bottom line.

Apple’s 2010 lobbying forms reflect the company has been an active participant in those conversations, speaking to lawmakers and federal regulators about patents, research funding, free trade agreements and taxes. It’s new outside firm, Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock, has handled some of those issues for other industry clients such as CTIA, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Time Warner Cable and the Coalition for Patent Fairness.

[Via Politico, 9to5Mac]