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With the iPad 2 announcement reportedly scheduled for a media event next week in San Francisco, it’s time to take a step back and re-analyze rumors posted in past months about the next-generation device. If rumors are of any indication and sources to be trusted, this little trip down the memory lane should give us a quick recap of the details we think we know about the iPad 2.
So read along after the break, and let’s see what the Apple rumor mill offered so far about the new tablet. Read more
All Things Digital reports Apple will unveil the iPad 2 next week, at a media event on March 2:
To those who intensely cares about this kind of stuff–which would be pretty much everyone in the tech ecosystem–Apple will hold its much-anticipated event on March 2, where the tech giant seems poised to unveil a new version of its hugely successful iPad.
It’s not clear when Apple will begin sending out its famous invites for gathering, but I am guessing soon, in order to get the Apple faithful to the proper level of froth.
Invitations for the event haven’t been sent out to bloggers and journalists yet, and if the date is real this time, we suspect it may happen as early as tonight or tomorrow morning. Note that March 2nd is a Wednesday, a day that fits Apple’s typical patterns for media events. It is also unclear whether Apple will hold a smaller event for the announcement in Cupertino, or at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Steve Jobs won’t likely announce the product on stage, leaving the presentation to Tim Cook and Phil Schiller – like in 2009 for the iPhone 3GS media event (when Jobs was on a medical leave of absence). The Yerba Buena Center calendar indeed shows there are no available programs on March 2. Read more
Apple is joining HP, eBay, Intel, Oracle and other Silicon Valley companies to build a $2 billion hospital in Stanford, with $550 million of the initial cost being donated and raised by the corporate partners program that Apple has joined as member. Steve Jobs and Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson are quoted in the press release and video of the upcoming hospital, which will feature technological advancements to “change the way people interface with the hospital” with ideas contributed by the companies mentioned above.
More than just contributing resources, the partners will work with New Stanford Hospital planners to develop innovative new approaches to providing patient access, information, education and navigation, a program that “has the ability to change the face of health care,” according to Stanford Hospital president and chief executive Amir Dan Rubin.
The project balances new technical innovations with the goal of creating a healing environment “responsive to the emotional, social and psychological needs of patients, families, visitors, medical professionals and staff,” said a report by the hospital.
Steve Jobs, quoted on the project’s website:
All of us are very fortunate to have Stanford’s world-class medical center right here in Silicon Valley. We are very excited about the development of their new hospital and really want to support their plans.
Full press release is available here, check out the video below featuring Apple’s Ron Johnson below. Read more
Finally someone who gets the problems with Apple’s recently announced subscription / in-app purchase policy. Instapaper developer Marco Arment nails it:
A few curious paradoxes:
As Arnold Kim puts it, Apple’s policy is as clear as mud. I’ve said this earlier today in regards of the Readability rejection, and I’m going to say it again: it’s ridiculous to enforce IAP for “software as a service”. Not that Apple can’t: they have all the rights to do what they want with their platform. But it doesn’t make sense.
Apple needs to clarify many points of In-App Purchases for developers and content publishers, and quickly.
Three weeks ago, web service Readability launched a completely revamped version of its “read later” platform including support for Instapaper (Marco Arment is an advisor to Arc90, the company behind Readability) and a new subscription system that allows publishers of content consumed through Readability to get 70% of the fees paid by subscribers.
It works like this: you sign up to Readability as a reader paying a $5 monthly fee, but you can decide to pay even more if you’re willing to support the project. Once you’re ready to use the service, you install a bookmarklet in your browser that will save articles for later in an uncluttered view that’s perfect for late-night reading sessions and mobile devices. Yes, it really is similar to Marco Arment’s Instapaper. In fact, the developers announced that the first official Readability iOS app would be heavily based on Instapaper – which also happens to have introduced support for sending logs to Readability a few days ago. Instapaper and Readability thus have become two integrated platforms for reading content and sharing it with your friends – but Readability’s unique twist allows publishers (like MacStories, or any other weblog) to get a kickback for every article saved for later. It’s a genius approach no one ever tried before. Read more
Are you a die-hard Apple fan that wants to get some rare memorabilia? Well you had better check out this listing on eBay where an official Apple-branded pack of cards is on auction!
The pack of cards feature OS 7 icons of bombs, clocks, Mac face and trash cans instead of the traditional clubs, hearts, diamonds and spades as you can see above. The pack was purchased at the Apple campus store in 1997 which was one piece of merchandise that was Apple branded and sold only to Apple employees. In other words, these cards are rare and will be undoubtedly worth quite a bit!
The listing is open for another six days and as of writing was at a bid of £28.00, but that’s likely to rocket as Apple fans across the world discover this quirky gem and bid to get their hands on it.
[Via The Next Web]
This piece by David Carr at The New York Times gets to the main point of subscriptions as seen by Apple, not publishers:
Apple knows many publishers already have digital subscriptions in place on their websites, but they also know many readers would like to jump to digital versions altogether if only the subscription system was simple, integrated in a single place or device. So looking at Apple’s subscriptions from a consumer perspective, here’s what we get:
Publishers may pass on this new Apple plan, but consumers will be disappointed to know they can’t have Condè Nast’s publications available through this fancy iTunes payment thing. By playing the “advocate” role, Apple has cleverly implemented a way to rewrite the rules and keep their cut at the same time. Consumers, in the very end, want content and they don’t care about publishers’ issues. They’re just going to say “why can’t I subscribe to Wired here?”.
And if this strategy doesn’t work, you can stay assured Apple will change.
Just released today is WiFi2HiFi, a new iPhone and iPod Touch app that effectively allows you to use your device to stream audio from your computer to an iPod dock, stereo system or anything else that can connect to the 3.5mm jack or the 30-pin port. It virtually emulates the AirPort Express feature of streaming audio from a computer to connected sound system, but how well does it work? I was given a pre-release build to review and a review follows the break.
Apple was recently awarded an interesting new patent regarding a possible feature in OS X in which users could secure vital files in a ‘safe deposit box’ which would encrypt and hide the files from access as well as potentially uploading them to the cloud.
The patent describes a simple process in which users would be able to drag a particular file to a safe deposit icon that would then secure the file and also upload the secured file to the cloud. Users could then access any secured files that are in the safe deposit box by verifying their identity. Patently Apple suggests that it could either be included in Lion’s Time Machine as an added feature or perhaps as a small ‘pro’ utility for those who want some extra security for their vital files and data.
