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Posts tagged with "iPad"

The Maglus Is An iPad Stylus That Attaches To The Smart Cover

I’m not a huge fan of styluses and capacitive pens for iOS devices, but I can recognize an interesting project when I see one. The biggest problem with a stylus, in my opinion, is that most of the times the design is hideous and there’s no way to keep it handy for whenever you need it. The Maglus, a product that needs funding to come to life, aims at combining design and usability with the use of magnets. Just like Apple bet on design and magnets for the iPad 2, the creators of the Maglus think a stylus that attaches to the iPad and the Smart Cover is the best way to turn a stylus into a 24/7 companion for your digital drawing and sketching needs. The Maglus attaches anywhere on your Smart Cover, including the back when the cover’s folded to prop your iPad up in typing mode. Clearly, Apple’s use of magnets and cover is opening to a lot of possibilities when it comes to third-party accessories.

The project has 24 days ago, and so far €3,159.00 have been raised out of the initial €15000 target. You can check out all the product’s information and pledge here. Check out the demo video below. [TUAW via RazorianFly] Read more

TweetyPop Is Like Time Machine For Twitter

Released yesterday in the App Store at $1.99, TweetyPop wants to offer a different way to read your Twitter timeline and interact with status updates. While regular Twitter clients like Twitter for iPad, Twitterrific and Osfoora are focused on empowering you to read tweets in a vertical timeline which you can interact with to reply, fave tweets, or just discover cool links to check out later, TweetyPop resembles the Mac’s Time Machine in the way it operates: tweets are placed on a three-dimensional space, and you have to move the tweet “bubbles” with your finger to fling them off the screen and move forward in the timeline. Just like Time Machine, you make progress in time: only you have tweets instead of files and you can do stuff with these tweets, too.

The app’s got a traditional list view as well, but that’s not really the point. What TweetyPop wants to achieve – and I guess the reason why the developers created it in the first place – is being the alternative app that lets you sit down and explore Twitter in time. A scrollbar on the right lets you quickly move to a couple of hours ago or a just a few minutes back; big arrows at the bottom allow you to dismiss old tweets and load new ones, or go back in time again. The concept’s really simple if you’re used to Time Machine or Lion’s Versions. In fact, the app’s even got the same space-inspired background that you can’t change. Once you get the hang of it – you can scroll, move tweets around, reply, fave and follow links – you might want to check out the additional icons along the top. These buttons enable you to use Twitter’s usual functionalities like replies, DMs and favorite tweets, as well as lists, trends, or search. In every section, tweets are displayed as bubbles against a Time Machine-esque timeline like in the main page. This might be a little disorienting at first for mentions and direct messages, but I believe TweetyPop wants to disorient you, in a good way. It’s very, very different from anything else I’ve tried on the iPad in a year of existence of the platform.

I also like the fact that the app’s got some interesting options to play with. You can send items to Instapaper or OmniFocus, filter the timeline by “all tweets” or “new tweets only” and enable auto-play to let the app automatically scroll for you and create a slideshow for your tweets. The slideshow speed is configurable in the settings.

At $1.99, I’d give TweetyPop a try if only because it’s different. Sure, it won’t replace Twitter for iPad or Twitterrific, but it has the chance to become that alternative Twitter app that does one thing well and surprises you with its original ideas and interactions. Plus, the time exploration effect for tweets is just neat. Go download the app here. Promo video below.

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Kickstarter: Taposé - Bringing Microsoft Courier to the iPad

Remember Microsoft’s Courier booklet PC? It was an interactive tablet with dual-touchscreens and folded like a booklet that Microsoft abandoned about a year and a half ago. Well, Benjamin Monnig and Ricky Drake are taking the idea of the Courier to an iPad app simply called Taposé and have launched a Kickstarter project to help with funding.

Taposé brings Courier functionality to the iPad. The creativity, productivity, and attractive user interface merged into one outstanding product. The split interface design (similar to the Courier idea) allows users to interact with multiple apps simultaneously in one app - Taposé.

Kickstarter video and a “How It Evolved” video after the break.

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E-Books Fail To Save Publishers From Revenue Decline

Research published yesterday by IHS iSuppli reveals that the US book publishing industry has reached a “major inflection point” in which there will be a long-term decline in revenue, as e-book sales fail to reach the levels required to compensate the fall in physical book sales.

Over the period of 2010-2014, the book publishing industry will face a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) decline of 3% for both e-books and paper books. This reflects a fall in revenue from $25 billion between 2005 and 2010 to $22.7 billion between 2010 and 2014. Driving the decline is a 5% fall in the CAGR of physical book revenue, which far outweighs the 40% CAGR in e-books. This is mostly due to the fact that the selling prices of e-books are on average 40% lower than those of paper copies.

Dedicated e-readers, however, are forecast to triple in sales from 2010’s 9.7 million sales to over 30 million units in 2014. Previous figures did forecast over 40 million sales, but IHS iSuppli believes devices such as the iPad and other tablets will limit the market for such dedicated e-reading devices. IHS iSuppli also reveals in its analysis that since the introduction of the iPad, e-reader manufacturers have been forced to shrink margins from 35% to far lower levels.

[Via IHS iSuppli]

 

Square Set To Add Encryption To Next Generation Of Card Readers

Yesterday Square revealed that it had received from financial services superpower, Visa, strategic investment of an unspecified size. However in a lower key announcement it also revealed that this summer they will be releasing a new card reader that uses encryption on the read head.

You may recall the little squabble a few months back where VeriFone and Square traded blows over whether the Square card reader was secure enough. VeriFone claimed it wasn’t and that Square should recall all their readers because thieves could easily skim credit card information using the device. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square, hit back at VeriFone saying it was “not a fair or accurate claim and [that] it overlooks all of the protections already built into your credit card.”

Yet despite all that, Square will soon be addressing those “concerns” that VeriFone had, and release a card reader that employs encryption. The Square COO, Keith Rabois, notes that they are adopting Visa’s newly released (yesterday) mobile application best practices. He says that the “adoption of best practices will help increase trust in innovative payment solutions” although equally stresses that Square currently complies with all industry standards. TechCrunch rightly highlights that it is clearly no coincidence that Square’s endorsement of Visa’s best practices came on the same day as their funding announcement.

TechCrunch inquired as to whether users would have to replace their current readers but Rabois declined to comment specifically but he did continue to affirm Square’s previous rejection of VeriFone’s demand to recall the Square readers. Rabois also noted that encryption will not be the only new feature of the third iteration of readers coming this summer.

[Via TechCrunch]

Here’s The Sequel to the Most Minimal iPad Stand

Back in August of last year, we showed you Michiel Cornelissen’s original iPad 1 stand. We called it the “most minimal iPad stand.” Not to outdo himself but he has redesigned the PadFoot for iPad 2. It’s now even lighter and smaller than its predecessor at only 10 grams, and has an increased viewing angle as well. All while being as stable and sturdy as ever.

The new PadFoot clips to the corner of your iPad and securely stands it upright in landscape and portrait modes. Just like other larger and heavier stands, it’s great for tv, movies, and slideshows. It works well for FaceTime calls too. Read more

Report: Apple Grabs 74% Of Tablet Market

According to a new report by research firm Canalys, in the first quarter of 2011 Apple grabbed 74% of the worldwide tablet market. Canalys is the first firm to include tablets and, more specifically, the iPad in total PC shipments, and as the PC market grew 7% overall in Q1, the research group notes how the most impressive growth was reported by Apple.

Taking into consideration the iPad’s ‘halo effect’ on the company’s other products, Apple has grown considerably in most markets worldwide,’ said Canalys Analyst Tim Coulling. ‘As the iPad 2 and its competitors continue to roll out, we expect pad sales to propel PC market growth for the rest of the year.

Apple continued with its strategy to dominate the pad market, with the iPad or iPad 2 available in 59 markets by the end of Q1. A combination of strong Q4 sales and the announcement of the iPad 2’s launch across major markets at the end of March contributed to Apple’s iPad shipments being down 31% sequentially. The full impact of the iPad 2 launch will not register until subsequent quarters, as Apple gets the product into the hands of consumers.

Apple positioned #4 in worldwide total PC shipments behind HP, Acer and Dell, shipping 8.5 million computers & tablets in Q1, as opposed to 2.9 million Mac shipments in the year-ago quarter. Whilst Dell was the only PC vendor of the three ahead of Apple to post positive growth in the quarter with a 2.8% increase, Apple reported a 187.9% growth with Macs and iPads combined.  Canalys notes tablet shipments reached 6.4 million units in the quarter, with Apple grabbing 74% of the market. In their Q2 2011 earnings call for the quarter that ended on March 26th, Apple posted record revenue of $24.67 billion with 4.69 million iPads and 3.76 million Macs sold. iPad shipments are expected to grow in Apple’s Q3 as suppliers recover from the Japanese disaster and are able to meet demand of tablet components such as LCD displays and RAM.