Microsoft Is Working on iPad Apps
Office would be great, especially for enterprise. I have the feeling it’ll be some Bing stuff, though.
Office would be great, especially for enterprise. I have the feeling it’ll be some Bing stuff, though.
I’ve been thinking about this for some months now: what could be the right way to “multitask” on the iPad? Some say we humans can’t really multitask. For the sake of the argument, let’s just say that we want to argue on whether Apple’s way to switch between paused apps on the iPad could be better or not. I think that, with a few tweaks, iOS 4.2 could bring a deeply different experience from the iPhone on the iPad. Read more
I downloaded iOS 4.2 for iPad yesterday, and I’ve been playing around with it all day. Overall, I think it’s a pretty solid first beta: the apps that were already updated to rely on iOS 4 APIs just work (of course they’re Universal apps such as Pandora, but iPhone apps in mini-mode work as well), the multitasking system works pretty well in spite of less RAM, animations are ok.
Sure, it’s a beta: those animations are choppy sometimes and I needed to manually “kill” some apps in the multitasking tray that were unresponsive or incredibly slow. Audio in the background froze a couple of times; Mail hangs when opening large conversations and Safari flushes open pages more often than usual.
It’s a perfectly acceptable trade-off to have iOS 4 on the tablet. And it’s a first beta. And it’s got wireless printing and AirPlay. I agree with John when he says that, considering the previous nature of the device, iOS 4.2 might turn out to be the best software update of all time.
I have collected some of the features and neat little touches I like most about 4.2 for iPad. I think it’s going to be a great operating system. Read more
So here’s the thing: real artists come up with masterpieces no matter the platform, tools or limitations. Real artists break the rules. An English firm named Dentsu London has managed to realize a series of stop motion shots assembled from long exposure light paintings. Read more
Here’s a cool thing we found out in iOS 4.2 for iPad: if you disable the simple passcode in the Settings app and choose to create an alphanumeric passcode, the iPad has a redesigned keyboard in the lockscreen.
It’s…black. It looks beautiful, for sure: letters really pop in against the dark background, and they go subtle-blue when you press them. It’s also very elegant. Now, would it make sense for Apple to keep two different keyboards in iOS? One for the lockscreen, one for anything else? Maybe: after all, the numeric keypad was black and has always been exclusive to the lockscreen.
Still, we want to speculate here. I’d personally like this black keyboard in iOS, but I understand that it would be “too much” for some users. It’s particular, but looks great. I don’t know, I like it but I have my doubts. What do you think? Read more
You’ve had a chance to win some great utilities this morning for your Macintosh and iOS devices, so it’s only fair we give the iPad the royal treatment as well.
Below we’ve handpicked some outstanding iPad utilities (some universal!) that’s bound to enhance your productivity ten fold.
Courtesy of AppAdvice and Engadget, two videos to get a quick overview of what using iOS 4 on the iPad feels like. I have it, and it’s great: apps already updated for the new APIs on the iPhone are working fine on the iPad, some of them (e.g. non-universal apps) are having some issues.
Anyway, iOS 4.2 really manages to make the iPad feel like a new device. And it’s just the first beta. Read more
Too bad the iPad isn’t just a book reader. That’s what Amazon still don’t get: the iPad is a great tablet which does pretty good ebook reading.