Category: iPad

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Apple iPad Review: WiFi+3G Model

When the Apple iPad WiFi model shipped I did a pretty in-depth review of it, which you can see here. Therefore the purpose of today's review is focus primarily on the 3G capabilities. (and yes that's a custom Gelaskin on the back because that's just how I roll 🙂 )

 

Which model did I go with?

I had planned all along to go with the 16GB WiFi model for testing and reviewing and then get the 64GB WiFi+3G model for my own use. That's exactly what I did. Although I don't "need" 64GB's of space for my info and media content, I do plan to use the iPad for field backup of my photos and instant touch up and sharing using the iPad Camera Connection Kit. I typically shoot to either 8GB or 16GB memory cards and almost never fill them up in one day. After loading everything on the iPad that I wanted to have on it  (including a couple of movies), I still had over 32GBs of free space. That will be plenty for photo backup each day of shooting. My wife claimed the 16GB WiFi version in case you were wondering.

 

What's different on the outside?

Not much. The only two visual differences on the outer case are the black bar across the top for the antennas/GPS support and the MicroSIM tray on the left side. Otherwise it's visually identical to the WiFi model. 

 

What's different on the inside?

The obvious and biggest difference on the inside is that the WiFi+3G models include 3G wireless technology to allow you to connect to the internet pretty much anywhere there is GSM cell service. The other difference is that these models also include a real GPS chip. So while the WiFi mode can detect your location based on available WiFi signals, the WiFi+3G model can do so based on GPS satellites, cell towers AND WiFi signals. This also means that it's capable of running turn-by-turn GPS navigation apps although it may be a bit conspicuous on your dashboard. 🙂

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iPad Camera Connection Kit Review

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFtx9HzM-lE

 

As a photographer one of the iPad accessories I was most anticipating was the iPad Camera Connection Kit. This kit consists of TWO adapters that connect right to the iPad's Dock connector. The first one is a standard SD (SDHC) Memory Card reader. You connect it to your iPad and then insert a memory card with images/videos on it and transfer those images to your iPad. No software to install because the iPad already has this ability built-in to the Photos App. The second adapter has a standard USB port on the oppositie end of the Dock connector. With this one you can not only connect your camera via USB and transfer images directly, but as my video above shows you can even use a Card Reader with it! This overcomes (although not as elegantly) the problem of wanting to use Compact Flash or other card formats. 

 

How does it work?

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Creating My 1st iBook for the iPad with Adobe InDesign CS5

These are exciting times in the publishing industry! The tools have never been better to get your word out. With the introduction of Adobe Creative Suite 5 and in particular InDesign CS5, my head is spinning thinking about all the possibilities. I can use one industry standard app to publish for Print, for the Web with NEW Interactive features and now more easily than ever to standard eBook Reader formats such as ePUB. There’s also a lot of excitement around the Apple iPad. The beauty here is that I can use my new found publishing power and Apple’s popular device to get my content in front of more eyeballs than ever.

 

The Project

As you may know I co-authored one of the best selling books for the iPhone, “The iPhone Book”. I’ve been very happy with the success of that book and of course as soon as the iPad was introduced, many eyes turned towards me to question if I was going to write a book for this new device. While the project seemed interesting (and still is), I wanted to try something a little different this time around. I wanted the iPad Book to be an iBook on the actual iPad. All of my books are already being laid out in Adobe InDesign. So there’s nothing new there, except there is something new there in terms of capabilities. The enhanced capabilities around the ePUB format and Interactive Document publishing beyond PDF. So I wanted to do two things: I wanted to get a sample out there of what an iPad book on the iPad and I wanted to experience first hand what it was like to create one from scratch using InDesign CS5. So I enlisted the help of my colleague at Adobe, Colin Fleming (eBOOK guru) and Colin gave me the inside scope and even some sample demo documents that he had put together. This was a great jump start and helped me avoid some stumbling blocks. Yesterday, I started my sample “25 iPad Tips” and today I have a FREE iBook that you can download right here.

 

The Making of my 1st iBook (ePUB)

The iBooks App on the iPad reads standard ePUB documents and Adobe InDesign CS5 just so happens to export them out directly. Great! There are some limitations that you have to be mindful in your document itself. These are limitations on the standard more so than of InDesign. For example, InDesign is an amazingly powerful page layout application that pretty much allows you do do anything you want on the page. However, ePUB has limitations on how the content has to flow to make it possible to have this single document on a multitude of different devices. I recorded this video to walk you through some of those things to look out for:

 

 

Downloading and Installing my FREE “25 iPad Tips” Book

The first step is to download my ePUB file here. Once you download the ZIP file, unzip it and you’ll have a short readme.txt file and the actual “25 iPad Tips.epub” document. Open iTunes 9.1 and higher and simply drag the ePUB into the Library area of iTunes on the left side. It should now appear in the Books Area of iTunes and once you plug in your iPad via the USB cable, you can select it as a book to sync in the Books Tab in iTunes. Enjoy!

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iPad Accessories – The First Batch Is Here

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuy9HkhF9CA

 

When I ordered my iPad, I actually ordered some accessories to go with it. They have been arriving piece by piece, so I thought I'd give you a look at the first batch. In the video above, I check out the iPad Dock ($29), iPad Keyboard Dock ($69), iPad VGA Adapter ($29), and the iPad Case ($39) by Apple. Of the accessories I've seen so far I would say that I like the Keyboard Dock the most. Although the iPad supports a bluetooth keyboard and I probably even have one lying around here, the thing you're still going to want to do is to prop up the iPad while you type. That's why the Keyboard Dock is great. It's a stand with audio out AND a keyboard specifically made for the iPad with buttons along the top that control iPad functions. Of course the one accessory I'm very anxious to check out is the Camera Connection Kit! As soon as it arrives it will be next up for review. 

Check out my original iPad review here. Check out my 10 Must Have iPad Apps here.

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iPhone OS 4.0 Coming This Summer!

Apple just took the wraps off iPhone OS 4.0, which is due out this summer for the iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 3G, iPod touch 2nd and 3rd generations. They are touting over 100 NEW Features. Here's a quick run down of many of the hot features with my favorites in bold:

  • Multitasking – Run Multiple 3rd Party Apps at once!
  • Unified Mail inbox – Finally!
  • App Folders – for better organization!
  • File & delete Mail search results
  • Search SMS/MMS messages
  • Web search suggestions
  • Choose image size in Mail messages
  • QuickLook
  • Bluetooth keyboards
  • In-App SMS
  • iBooks
  • Calendar Access in the SDK
  • Mail gets Threaded Responses, in App Attachment Viewing and Multiple Exchange Accounts
  • CalDav invitations
  • Larger fonts for Mail, SMS & alerts
  • Cell data only setting
  • Spell check
  • Persistent Wi-Fi
  • Gift Apps
  • Birthday calendar
  • Recent Web searches
  • Create Playlists
  • Top Hit in search
  • 5x digital zoom
  • Nested Playlists
  • CardDav
  • Tap to focus video
  • Upload workouts to Nike+
  • Places in Photos
  • Home screen wallpaper
  • Wake on wireless

There will also likely be NEW iPhone's this Summer too!

IMPORTANT NOTE: No Multitasking on the iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2nd gen. Also no OS 4 for the iPad until FALL

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Charging Your iPad: What You Should Know

The good news is that so far the iPad battery life is really good.However, there are some things you should be aware of when it does come time to charge it. When Apple introduced the iPad and subsequently put the specs up on their website, the first thing that jumped out at me was that they were specifically calling the fact that the supplied charger was a "10W USB Power Adapter".  

The fact that they were announcing the wattage was an alert to me that the iPad had different power requirements than the iPhone and iPods. Typically if a manufacturer calls something out it's for a reason and I was right. So here's what you need to know:

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Apple iPad Review: WiFi Model

It's here! I just spent the weekend with my New Apple iPad: 16GB  WiFi model (I'll also review the WiFi+3G model when it ships) and wanted to give you my in-depth review. It's exciting! As a matter of fact my buddy Bruce was waiting at his office on Saturday for his iPad to be delivered and when the UPS guy got there, they started talking and the UPS guy shared with him how people were following him in their cars and begging him to give them their iPads early before getting to their homes. I can't think of too many products that cause this kind of frenzy. See my Unboxing Video here (it's different than any other iPad unboxing video you've seen 😉 ) On to the review and keep in mind that I've only had the iPad for two days, so I haven't touched every single feature yet, but here's what I've seen and touched so far…

The Hardware

The iPad is another example of Apple's attention to detail. Everything from the packaging to the actual design of the device is top notch. There are just a few hardware buttons. The home button is there just like on the iPhone and iPod touch as well as hardware buttons for the volume controls on the right side, on/off switch on top, a screen/rotation lock on the right and built-in speaker on the bottom as well as headphone jack and microphone on top.

My first impression when I picked it up out of the box was "it feels heavy!" Although it's only 1.5 lbs, I was looking at it from a "hold it with one hand while reading" angle. Since it's a book reader, I would want to hold it with one hand while flipping the pages with the other. I would be easily fatigued if I had to hold it in one hand for more than a few minutes. Holding it with two hands won't be an issue and holding it with one hand as long as you have your knee or a table to rest on should be fine.

The iPad comes with a USB sync/charging cable and a wall charger. 

It's FAST! The iPad is VERY RESPONSIVE. I haven't seen any lags whatsoever. Photos, Apps and everything I've tried so far have been very speedy!

Battery Life – So far so good. Keep in mind that testing for a weekend is not real-world regular use. However,  I can easily see this thing going for 10 hours straight. I haven't run it all the way down yet, so I'll have to report back later on the actual battery life I get when I using it under normal conditions. Also very few will run it for 10 hours straight without a break.

Wi-Fi – The iPad takes advantage of 802.11n. So both range and network speed are GREAT! I must also remind you that this is the WiFi version and therefore will only connect to the internet via a WiFi hotspot. I know that sounds like a "duh" statement, but there seems to be a lot of confusion over the difference between the two models: WiFi and the WiFi+3G model that's coming out later this month.

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My iPad is here!

I've been playing with the iPad all day and working on my Full Review that will be posted on Monday. In the meantime I thought you might want to take a look at this unboxing video that I recorded earlier. I think you'll like it 😉

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGEmRk87qkA

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iPad Pre-orders to begin this Friday

ipad_2up_fbgame2

In case you hadn't heard, Apple will begin taking pre-orders for both WiFi and WiFi+3G versions of the iPad this Friday, March 12th presumably via the Apple Store Online. The WiFi model is supposed to ship on April 3rd (or you can reserve one for pickup). No word yet on the actual date that the WiFi+3G model will ship, Apple says in "late April."

 

Speaking of the WiFi+3G Model

I know that many of you hate AT&T with a passion. I have no passion one way or the other for them. However, in all fairness it looks like their claims of having the fastest (no one said most reliable or best coverage in your area) 3G network has some truth to it. PC World's results are in and in fact AT&T comes out ahead in their results.

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