Shut Up, I Create Content On My iPad.

I keep reading posts on the internet about people stating that the iPad is the perfect device to consume content. They say it’s perfect for music, videos, pictures. I’m ok with that. It’s true: the tablet form factor surely helps a lot in practicing these activities.

I also read posts and comments from other people, these ones claiming that there’s no way you can produce original content on the iPad. They have a pretty large following, too. They share consensus that if a device is perfect for consuming, then it must be terrible at producing.

Let me tell you why they’re wrong.

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iMacs to Receive Refresh in Coming Weeks?

AppleInsider reports that Apple is advising its direct and indirect sales channels of iMac shortages, specifically the 21.5-inch, 3.06 GHz model, implying that there will be a refresh  in the coming weeks.

Apple has been plotting the upcoming iMac refresh since last year. At the time, the company was brainstorming a lineup that would include more than one quad-core configuration, according to people familiar with the plans.

Potential configurations included a dual-core Core i5 model, as well as quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 configurations. Also of interest, according to those same people, were indications that new iMacs would be the first Macs to employ Intel’s Core i3 processor at the low-end, which would have the new family of desktops utilize all three flavors of Intel’s mobile Core line of processors.

Unconfirmed is the possibility of a faster FireWire interface and USB 3.0 implementation, which is said to be ten times faster than USB 2.0. Also rumored is that Apple is in advanced discussions to adopt microprocessors from AMD, while Apple a 12-core Mac Pro and 27” Apple Cinema Display remain unseen.

[via AppleInsider]

IK Multimedia Releases AmpliTube for iPad

Yo, rockers. I bet this is one of the apps for the iPad you were looking forward to: the first version of AmpliTube for iPad was released in the App Store earlier today, and it comes with a free version [iTunes link] and a paid one sold at $19.99 [iTunes link].

Using the Amplitube iRig interface adapter you’ll be able to connect your guitar to your iPhone at anytime, anywhere. The UI design looks very cool, and of course it resembles the looks of real amps.

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Steve Jobs Is Houdini

Richard S. Levick, reporting for Forbes:

“In any event, we don’t often see a corporate kingpin deliver such a multifaceted message about a product, his company and himself. Even without the triumphant earnings report, two fundamental truths came through, and they both ultimately bode well for Apple and its stakeholders.

The first is that when you’ve used your peacetime effectively, by building support among vital stakeholders and fanning the warm fires of their impassioned loyalty, you can survive big mistakes. The failed leadership decried in the Washington Post and other venues might have been fatal for most leaders other than Steve Jobs. We saw another example of the salutary effect of longtime trust and brand equity with consumers who might otherwise have deserted in droves when Toyota faced all its product quality woes in the past year.

The second lesson is that the right fix in a crisis can seem almost miraculous. Assuming the iPhone 4 case giveaway works and customers are kept satisfied, Apple will reinforce its brand more emphatically than if the crisis had never happened. Apple will have delighted the crowd, all the more so because the crowd held its breath to see if Houdini would escape the trap. If the fix works, Jobs’ demeanor at the press conference only reinforces the zeal of his loyalists, and it likely wins new adherents to the cult, too.”

Now go ahead, and start saying that this was all planned.

P.S.

If so, what a plan.

FacePlant is FaceMail for FaceTime

How the heck do you know if someone’s available to chat via FaceTime? Check it: FacePlant is command central for all your FaceTime leaves. Leave a voicemail, erm, FaceMail for that lovely barista you met last week, get notified when someone wants to FaceTime with you, and go undercover when you don’t want to be bothered. It’s this extra functionality that Apple should have implemented, but didn’t.

FacePlant is still in the review process, but you can totally catch a video after the break.

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Why You Should Disable your Browser Autofill

Geeking out on all things security, Jeremiah Grossman details an interesting attack that could steal information stored in a web browser for use in autofill.

These fields are AutoFill’ed using data from the users personal record in the local operating system address book. Again it is important to emphasize this feature works even though a user never entered this data on any website. Also this behavior should not be confused with normal auto-complete data a Web browser may remember after its typed into a form.

All a malicious website would have to do to surreptitiously extract Address Book card data from Safari is dynamically create form text fields with the aforementioned names, probably invisibly, and then simulate A-Z keystroke events using JavaScript. When data is populated, that is AutoFill’ed, it can be accessed and sent to the attacker.

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Thoughts on Flipboard

Like I said in my first coverage of Flipboard, I didn’t have enough time to test the application and come up with an opinion about the innovations of this new way to consume and, to a degree, produce news content on the iPad. When Flipboard launched two days ago, the servers were immediately hammered down by Robert Scoble’s highly hyped preview, people tried to add their own Twitter / Facebook feeds and the application servers crashed. I guess McCue wasn’t expecting such a huge and positive response, probably because he didn’t know that iPad users were looking for something like this.

A new, fresh, revolutionary app that could prove that the iPad is indeed magical. We’ve seen some great apps on the iPad, but as Scoble puts it: “you’ve never seen one like this”. Is Flipboard revolutionary? It’s the first seed for a revolution in how people find interesting content on the crowded web, and this revolution is happening now. The problem with this revolution is that many people don’t think it’s a revolution at all. Strange, isn’t it? A company comes out with a greatly innovative product and many people don’t see that product as great or innovative.

They’re not looking at the big picture. They don’t get the concept, they don’t see the potential because they’re too busy criticizing some developers that made the wrong choice of not choosing the right amount of servers for day-one.

I’ve been testing the app with full Twitter and Facebook support since yesterday. Indeed, I was able to add my Twitter and Facebook accounts, other people’s profiles and Twitter lists, both the ones curated by me and others. So, I’m enjoying the complete Filpboard experience right now. Here are my thoughts about it.

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