That’s what one Macenstein reader seems to think. The guy points to a small moment in Wednesday’s presentation that, frankly, got past me.

Steve Jobs, rattling off a list of things that the iPad is getting in November with iOS 4.2, slips in HDR. As in photography. As in, something that would use a camera that the current model does not possess.

Normally, I’d say there’s no way Apple or its CEO could make the huge goof of referring to something that wasn’t intended to be revealed. Then again, did you catch the one about Ping and Facebook Connect? So I guess anything’s possible.

Check out the video and tell us what you think: Accidental major leak or just a slip of the tongue?

Via: Macenstein

In case you missed it, iOS 4.2 is coming to all iOS 4-compatible devices in November — including the iPad. To help spread the word, Apple has posted a new “Coming Soon” page on its website, along with a little more information on what the software update will bring.

If you were rubbing your eyes, unable to believe that your tablet is finally going to get folders, take heart. It really is happening. You’ll get all the multitasking and app folder goodness other iOS 4 devices have been enjoying all summer. The list of things to look forward to follows (as described on the site):

Multitasking
Run all your favorite apps — and switch between them instantly — without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily.2

Folders
Organize apps into folders with drag-and-drop simplicity. Get faster access to your favorites and browse and manage thousands of apps.

Printing
Print mail, photos, web pages, and more directly to a printer on a wireless network.

AirPlay
Wirelessly stream videos, music, and photos from iPad to the new Apple TV, and stream music to AirPlay speakers or receivers, including AirPort Express.

Game Center
Experience social gaming on your iPad. Find friends or use auto-match to play multiplayer games against new opponents. Track achievements and compare high scores.

Even better Mail
See messages from all your accounts in a unified inbox, organize messages by threads, and open attachments in third-party apps.

Find text on web pages
In Safari, easily find and highlight specific words and phrases on large web pages.

Enhanced enterprise support
Businesses can take advantage of stronger security features, new device management capabilities, and improved enterprise integration.

Accessibility enhancements
Control VoiceOver using a wireless keyboard. Output in braille to over 30 supported wireless Bluetooth refreshable braille displays in more than 25 languages.

Keyboard and dictionary enhancements
Choose from more than 30 new keyboards and dictionaries, including Arabic, Greek, and Hebrew.

Being able to search a keyword on a Safari webpage? That’s an unexpected bonus! Googling a search term, clicking on the link, and then scrolling through a crazy long webpage has been extra un-fun on an iPhone. (My fingers get tired from all the flicking.) Finally, some relief! That and wireless printing is making me fall in love with this platform all over again.

Have you got any favorites on this list you’re most looking forward to? Hit us up with a comment, or to see the page for yourself on Apple online, click here.

JiWire, an advertising company that focuses marketing specifically through Wi-fi networks, recently released a report with some interesting numbers. They say 55.1% of public Wi-fi locations available are free, outnumbering paid Wi-fi hotspots in the US for the first time. While Starbucks and McDonalds have provided free access for a while now, this growth may be due to retailers now also offering free internet (one recent example being Sam’s Club).

JiWire’s Insights report for 2010’s second quarter show that a growth of free Wi-fi spots isn’t only happening in the US. Seven of the top 10 countries worldwide (ranked by the number of public hotspots) have even added more locations recently, with France taking the lead in this growth. France took the UK’s number three ranking this last quarter by boosting its total number of publicly available internet access points by 12.8%.

The data collected by JiWire suggests that approximately 1 in 4 Wi-fi networks around the world is now free. (That’s a leap of 20% from just a year ago.) This seems to be a trend that could continue to grow further still. It also poses the question: Is 3G data connectivity needed anymore? Seeing as a lot of mobile internet usage is done in an eating, drinking or sitting area (where free internet is easily available), is this slowly becoming an end to sales of Mi-fi and other mobile internet solutions?

And what about the iPad 3G? Will this sway users to go for a less expensive Wifi-only model? If you have either one, let us know if you’re regretful or satisfied with your purchase and its connectivity options.

Via: Gigaom

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I’m torn about today’s event. There was a lot of good stuff unveiled, along with the fruition of some long-awaited features. But there were other things that had me feeling a little… well, ambivalent.

First the good: A refresh for the whole iPod line? That’s exciting. Great to see that Apple threw out the whole “small, incremental changes” ethos and cranked up the fun. (And that itty bitty Nano? I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad at my disposal, and yet somehow, I still want that adorable teeny tiny touchscreen device. If it can eventually run some other limited selection of apps, I might even be in love. Yeah, yeah — the whole mobile industry is going toward massive screens. Whatevs. Call me a sucker for miniatures.)

The Apple TV announcement was very interesting too. Now that they’ve slashed both the footprint of the device as well as the price, maybe it stands half a chance of taking off. And if it does, it could finally do for streaming TV entertainment what the iPhone did for touchscreen smartphones and the iPad did for tablets.

But we could sit here and talk all day about Apple TV or the company’s myriad other products. Mobile iOS devices and software are really what our site is about, so let’s take a closer look at that angle.

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iOS 4.1

We are on the verge of iOS 4.1 landing on our devices, and with it, will come some interesting things. That next major software update will bring some welcome relief for people who have been suffering problems with the proximity sensor, Bluetooth, and iPhone 3G compatibility.

My reaction to that is — AWESOME! My second reaction is, “What took so $#@*& long?!” Did it have to take months to figure out fixes for this? Maybe so. No doubt, Apple made some really ambitious upgrades this year, and when you take that big a leap forward, you’re bound to hit a few obstacles. I’m sure Cupertino wasn’t planning on redirecting resources to appease anntennagate victims or patch PDF vulnerabilities. Still, these fixes seemed to take forever. (And we’ll find out next week how well these were addressed.)

As someone who has been lucky in not having to deal with these mishaps, my attention was focused less on the patches, and more on the new stuff — namely that nifty new high dynamic range feature. The iPhone took some criticism for its 5 MP camera (since these days, many of the advanced smartphones are offering 8 MP or more). Any photographer will tell you that pixel count isn’t a good way to judge a camera, but we consumers seem to transfixed by that number. Maybe that will all go away when we see stunningly clear and vivid images coming from our phones (and now iPod Touches!).

If you’re not familiar with high dynamic range, let me see if I can explain briefly: Have you ever taken a pic focused on a light area? it renders the darks in your photo like sludge, right? Or maybe you focused on the dark part, and now the whites are blown out. Tapping on an area that’s not too dark or too light may make the subject come out great — except your whites and shadows are now washed out. But imagine taking all the best parts of these pics and putting them together in one photo. You’ve got a vibrant light area, detail in the dark part and a mid-colors are crisp. That’s the power of HDR, and it’s coming to our iPhones and iPod Touches natively.

I can also see how Game Center might help bolster Apple’s standing in the mobile gaming community. (I’d be shocked if Jobs’ boasting about the iPod Touch topping Nintendo and Sony didn’t prompt an immediate response from those companies.) As if we weren’t already addicted to our games. Social gaming and remote multiplayer could intrigue hardcore gamers — some of whom have been turning their noses up at the iOS platform.

Ability to upload HD videos and rent TV shows (at just $0.99 a pop) are also some nice finishing touches.

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iOS 4.2

It felt like a treat to get an iOS 4.2 sneak peek, especially for iPad users. Jobs didn’t tip his hat too much about the software, but did open up with a few interesting nuggets.

First, wireless printing from the device? That is tremendous. The tablet offers a great interface for document creation and editing. Printing has been the one crucial feature that’s been missing. There are apps that do this, but it requires some set up, and every new update brings a potential for new bugs. Now, iPad owners will have this natively, and that’s huge. The companion Print Center app also gives them the ability to monitor print jobs. These developments are sure to thrill a lot of iPad users.

iOS 4.2 will also bring AirPlay, and a very cool new feature that will allow iTunes to stream audio and video to iOS devices. It’s not a cloud-based iTunes solution, like a lot of the gossipmongers were predicting, but at least streaming from the desktop has just gotten easier. Airplay is also what will enable iPads to push content wirelessly to the company’s revamped Apple TV (which suddenly makes Jobs’ pet project a little more interesting).

That all sounds great, but here’s the issue: iOS 4.2 won’t be available until November. Maybe it wouldn’t be too big a deal if iPad users had iOS 4.0 or 4.1 to hold them over like iPhones and iPod Touches, but no dice. Tablet users, many of whom got their devices last April, have been waiting for almost half a year to get multitasking, folders, etc. Now they’ll have to wait a few months more? That’s kind of ridiculous.

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iTunes

Yes, CDs are quickly becoming a thing of the past, with digital downloads and streaming becoming more widely available. So it’s no shocker that Apple has ditched the CD emblem of its logo. iTunes will also have a revamped interface, displaying album art inline with song titles. But the real news is a new feature called Ping.

The whole crux of Ping is to bring the social networking aspect into the music experience. You can friend people, follow them, see what music or concerts they’re into, sample their playlists and more. The really interesting part? Ping will also be available on iOS devices. At first blush, I wondered if this would compete with apps like Pandora or Slacker, but there’s a big distinction here: It seems users can sample songs, but not play the whole thing. I’m sure Apple would’ve allowed that, if the music companies were willing. Maybe it will happen — right around the time that pigs fly. For now, users need to be content with sampling excerpts. But at least purchasing is quick and easy from the interface.

And of course, there’s iTunes support for AirPlay. The software has long supported this feature, or at least the old iteration, then called AirTunes. The newly renamed AirPlay allows users to stream video and audio over WiFi. That’s handy. I suppose. Not to downplay the usefulness of this (especially with it coupling up the iPad and Apple TV), but it would’ve been great to enable this over 3G, so users could feasibly have their iTunes catalog everywhere they are. Then again, that would probably incur some pretty scary data usage resulting in jacked up AT&T bills.

As it is, it’s a nice feature, but not quite mind-blowing. I think I’m more focused on how Ping could change the way we source our music.

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iPod Touch

Finally, we come to the big kahuna of today’s event: The new iPod Touch. I am so happy for my brethren, who’ve been awaiting this new version — and, as an iPhone 4 owner, I’m a little peeved about it as well.

It’s a sleeker, skinnier device with a Retina Display, Apple’s A4 processor, 3-axis Gyroscope, front and rear cameras with HD video recording and support for editing, along with FaceTime.

And it’s available in a 64 GB version, which my iPhone is not. I mean really, part of me is wondering why in the world I have an iPhone 4. Seems Cupertino closed much of the gap between the two devices here. If that rumor about 3G data connectivity had panned out (which it didn’t), I’m pretty sure I would’ve been looking to sell my smartphone to pick up this new Touch.

Again, I’m thrilled that Touch users are finally getting some long-desired features, but I can’t help but ask — What gives? Why would Apple design a device that so closely mirrors its other iOS handset? Wouldn’t that just cannibalize its sales? The iPhone 4 has only been on the market for two months, so it’s not like it’s ready to be retired anytime soon.

Frankly, there’s a lot to mull over from today’s event, and even more details may come to light in the days and weeks to come. But for now, I’m sort of scratching my head and wondering what Apple is up to.

Any guesses?

When the iPad came out in April, many people were a tad upset that a tablet device with HD playback didn’t offer any a HDMI output. Surely, it would have made sense to design a media centric device with the option to plug it easily in to your HD TV. It apparently made no sense to Jobs, and now we know why. Sneaky Steve has something up his sleeve all along.

Apple TV has always been Steve-o’s pet project, or “bit on the side”. The device was almost like Cupertino’s dirty secret. It couldn’t be bragged about too much, or the Macs and iPhones would get upset that they were, somehow, being cheated on. If the previously expensive and unnecessary toy had been promoted too heavily, no one would ever take Apple seriously. Let’s face it, the old device was way overpriced considering it was practically just an external hard-drive with Wi-Fi. Now though, a refreshingly low price point has been brought in, along with its ability to make friends with iDevices and Macs, making it much more of a drool maker.

So, Apple’s task was to somehow create a TV device, with useful extra features that fanboys everywhere would likely fall over their feet running after. Airplay plus the box costing one hundred bucks means that Jobs can reveal his little secret to everyone without  fear of mocking, and public shame. The new set-top box streams directly from the net, and includes access to YouTube and Netflix. Also, it takes a huge swing at cable TV’s offering of older movies, with tons of ads blasting at your senses every 15 minutes. There are no ads with Apple TV, and movies are all current.

Jobs&Co, however, may have pulled the wool slightly over our eyes. With no HDMI out on the iPad, what the company is basically saying is: “if you have an iPad, and want to stream HD videos over to your nice, big HD TV, pay us $100 and we’ll send you a plastic box that does it.”

It has to be said however, that I personally think the new re-formed TV is a great adaption of the old clunky model. It takes up no room, it wirelessly streams from any of my Apple products whenever I like and doesn’t need syncing. But, I sympathize with iPad owners who would have loved to have this capability from the get go.

What do you guys think about this? Will you purchase the lean, mean Apple TV machine? Is it another waste of money? Comment below or Tweet me: @TiP_Cam

Jack Bauer may sure be able to save the world in a day, but Apple comes pretty close. Since its release earlier this year,the iPad has been the center of intense controversy, speculation and admiration. It’s been so popular that many nations abroad had their release dates pushed back an entire month. In the States the expected delivery time from order online to your door has gradually reduced from weeks, to days and now it will get to you in one day. Sure, Cupertino may have hashed up the original production, but, I’m actually starting to believe Steve-o when he says “we’re doing everything we can”. The only question now is, will you get finally order yours or wait until the next generation tablet in 6 months?

Via: Apple

It looks like “Smart Pad” is just the moniker for Toshiba’s product category, claims Netbook Italia. The site published new renders of the iPad-like Android device, now dubbed the Toshiba Folio 100, as well as a dock with Toshiba branding. It also posted some new specs to boot. So let’s get down to business and find out if this truly is an “iPad Killer.”

As of now, we haven’t heard anything straight from the horse’s mouth, but based on the supposed specs, it’s shaping up to be a real iPad killer. It boasts some features (below) that the Apple tablet doesn’t have and most likely will never have, such as a USB port or external memory slots. There is no wording on price yet, but you can expect it to be in the general range of the iPad.

Features:

• Android 2.2
• NVIDIA Tegra 2
• 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display
• 16GB internal memory
• 802.11b/g/n wireless
• Bluetooth
• 3G
• SD and MMC card readers
• HDMI
• USB 2.0 ports
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 1020mAh battery with 7 hours of mixed use (perusing the web, watching videos, etc.) battery life

As far as software goes, it has Opera Mobile as the browser, Flash 1.0, an e-book reader, and some general office productivity applications.

So there you have it, the Folio 100, in all its glory. Will this tablet be enough to knock the iPad down a few rungs on the ladder, or is it too little and too late? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Via: Engadget

It’s always so depressing, having to work when pals invite you out for happy hour. You could sit there and sulk while finishing up those reports, or show a little class by buying them a round. Why not? With the BarTab app, it’s crazy cheap.

BarTab makes it easy to send your Facebook friends (or yourself) a real, honest-to-goodness cocktail, not just one of those cheesy icons people “gift” each other. (Don’t know about you, but I know my pals would rather have real Appletinis in hand than icons on their walls. With BarTab, they get both.) And you’re not limited to just other iPhone owners — you can text drinks via the app or website to any Facebook contact with a cell phone. There’s also an Android version, and a BlackBerry app is on the way.

Here’s how it works: The drinks each cost $1 to send, and friends pay $1 at the bar to redeem, for a whopping total of $2. (Yeah, I know — it’s a little irritating that pals have to cough up a buck, but don’t blame the developer; blame CA and NY state regulations.) At the other end, recipients have 90 days to claim their digital drink tickets. Once they do, it’s active for five minutes. Friends redeem it by flashing their phones at the bartender and slapping a buck down to get their spirits.

It’s a great concept, but it’s not without a couple of caveats: First, contacts can only claim one drink per hour, and can only use it at one bar per day. (But if they’re bar hoppers, this may not be a problem.) Second, the service is only accepted at limited locations in San Francisco, New York and L.A. That’s actually a bigger issue. This type of app needs to be fairly ubiquitous to make it worthwhile.

However, if a large userbase spurs more venues to sign on, then developer WebTab is doing a few very smart things. For one, you can buy yourself a drink for a total of $2. That alone is going to make this service popular. And there’s also a sign-up bonus of six half-off drinks, making them just one dollar per cocktail. So there are some nice enticements here to get people to try BarTab. And once they do, it could take off like wildfire. After all, viral marketing is the whole premise this service is based on.

While I’m not a fan of boozing it up, nor do I recommend it, I do think there’s a lot of potential in apps like BarTab. Like Foursquare or Facebook (especially with its Places update), it creates an interplay between the mobile space and activities in the real world, and that’s just really interesting. Instead of getting lost inside our touchscreens, more of us may find that we’re spurred on by them to engage real people and places. Now that’s something to toast to.

The BarTab app itself is free and works with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (with iOS 3.0 or higher). To give it a whirl, click here. And if you do, let us know what you think.

Via: MobileCrunch

SAI reports that companies are “breaking free of the vice-grip lock” that Microsoft and Intel has had on their business for the past two decades. It seems that multiple corporations are now beginning to purchase iPads and develop applications for them, possibly starting a huge trend across the corporate market.

WSJ reports that Chicago-based law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal “offers access to its internal systems for more than 50 iPad-toting attorneys, and anticipates issuing iPads as an alternative to laptops as soon as next year.” The firm pre-ordered 10 iPads before the device was initially released so that they could test and learn how the device could be used with the company’s internal systems. Now, 4 months down the line, the firm supports more than 50 attorney’s with iPads, with that number potentially growing soon as the plan to provide them as a cheaper alternative to laptops in the near future.

500+ applications of the 11,000 developed for the iPad are in the Business category of the App Store, and this number could grow rapidly very soon should the iPad’s presence make an impact on the corporate market. One free app in particular from Citrix Systems Inc. that allows people access to internal corporate programs from the iPad has been downloaded more than 145,000 times.

Can iPads really be taken seriously in businesses? Yes, they very well could be, for a few reasons:

• iOS supports Microsoft Exchange
• They are a lot more portable than most laptops
• Many developers (an example being networking service company Cisco, among many others) have developed for iOS to allow the same easy communication    software in the corporate that is used on many Windows laptops to be used on iPads.
• They are a cheaper alternative to laptops
• They “boot instantly” and run from flash memory, making them a lot quicker for many uses when on the go.

Right now, the biggest obstacle seems to be software: Enterprise-level programs just simply aren’t as available for this platform yet. That could, however, change in time, as adoption of this platform spreads.

Do you use the iPad for work? Are there any particular barriers you’re facing with that yet, or has it been a more productive platform so far? Weigh in with your thoughts below.

Via: SAI

In Japan, the authority responsible for the entire Sumo community has decided to give out iPads to all 51 Sumo stables in the country. This came about due to struggles in communication, as the wrestlers find phone keypads too small and fiddly. The Sumo Association is of the opinion that because of the iPad’s large on-screen keyboard, the device is ideal for the oversized digits of the fighters. The problem has come to the forefront during an investigation in to drugs, illegal gambling and assault by some of the wrestlers. As the authorities couldn’t make any headway with communication, the SA decided the only option was to buy Apple’s 9.7″ device for its stables.

Via: Fortune