New iPods and Apple TV Might As Well Be Hotcakes

Because that is what they are going to sell like. A few hours ago, Apple held its usual fall iPod refresh event to set things up for the holiday season. And as an added bonus, Apple live streamed the event on their site, a first since 2002.

Steve Jobs handled the keynote solo style today, save for one developer demo. As many of you know, Jobs has had some major medical issues over the past couple years, culminating in a leave of absence and a life-saving liver transplant. When he returned to Apple, the fall iPod event was his first round of stage time. That was one year ago, and he appeared exhausted and frail. Today was completely different. He looked healthy, was energetic, and even cracked a number of jokes. Glad to see you’re well, Mr. Jobs.

Steve kicked off the event by recognizing Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, who was in the audience. Then he talked about the success of Apple’s retail operations. Next, the overall health of the App Store. And then, with all the numbers out of the way, the really good stuff.

iOS 4.1

Steve introduced iOS 4.1, available for download next week, and ran through some of the updates. He explained there are a lot of bug fixes, primarily with the proximity sensor of iPhone 4, issues with Bluetooth, and performance with iPhone 3G (and presumably second-generation iPod touch, as the hardware is similar). 

There are several new features landing as well. The camera is getting an HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo setting. Basically, turn it on, and the iPhone will take three photos in rapid succession at different exposures, then meld them all together to present a perfectly exposed photo, in theory. As I am a bit of a camera nerd, I have a feeling I will love this simple implementation. Honestly, these days I take more pictures with my iPhone 4 than my Canon 40D.

iOS 4.1 will also allow HD Video uploading to YouTube and MobileMe when connected to WiFi, TV show rentals, and the introduction of Game Center.

Game Center is all about multiplayer games. You can challenge friends or be auto matched with a stranger. You can also compare scores on a leader board and discover new games. Game Center will be an app on your device, but also an API for developers to integrate Game Center into their games.

iOS 4.2

Yes, you read that right, Steve also talked about iOS 4.2. The primary mission of iOS 4.2 is to bring everything in iOS 4.1 to the iPad (finally). A couple other features will be wireless printing and AirPlay. I’ll talk about AirPlay in a bit. iOS 4.2 will be a free update to iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads in November.

iPod

Steve said the secret to the success of the iPod is that Apple has never rested on its laurels. Seems true enough to me. And these new models are very impressive.

iPod shuffle

Starting with the iPod shuffle, Steve took a walk down memory lane and discussed the first, second, and third generation of the shuffle. People loved the first one, went nuts for the second (which I have long said was the perfection of the shuffle design), and that the third wasn’t much of a hit. See, Apple had removed all of the controls from the third generation, moving them all to the headphones. What a disaster. Well, the fourth generation brings back the controls, and looks like a slightly smaller version of the second generation. The shuffle comes in silver, blue, green, orange, or pink. It has a 15 hour battery and will be available next week at $49 for 2GB.

iPod nano

Apple has heralded the death of the click wheel, the iconic input method of mobile music player history. The new iPod nano has a 1.5” touch screen, a clip on the back like the shuffle (runners won’t need a silly armband for it), dedicated volume buttons, and does still have enough room for the 30-pin Dock connector.

The new nano is, however, missing a few features that the last generation had. Those would be the video camera, the ability to play video, and games. In fact, the interface looks a lot like iOS, even down to putting icons in jiggly mode and rearranging them. But, I’m not sure if it is iOS or just looks like iOS. (My wager is that it is iOS, but locked down). 

The new nano is quite the compelling redesign. It will also be available next week in silver, black, blue, green, orange, pink, and red. It has a 24-hour battery and comes in 8GB and 16GB, selling for $149 and $179, respectively.

iPod touch

Apple added a lot to the iPod touch and somehow made it even thinner. The new iPod touch gains the A4 processor found in the iPad and iPhone 4, the amazing Retina Display (by far my favorite feature of the iPhone 4), a 3-axis gyroscope, and not one, but two cameras! The is a camera on the back that can record HD video, but sadly takes fairly low resolution photos, and then a camera on the front for — wait for it — FaceTime video conferencing! I have a feeling this may be popular with some of my relatives. I know FaceTime was indispensable for my son and I when my wife went out of town for a week last month.

The new iPod touch will be available next week, running iOS 4.1 with Game Center. It will be available in capacities of 8GB, 32GB, and 64GB at $229, $299, and $399, respectively.

Sidenote: Unlike previous years, all three capacities are the new generation of iPod touch. Traditionally, Apple has relegated the previous generation to the 8GB slot. This time, all three carry cameras, Retina displays, and A4 chips. Color me impressed.

iPod classic

Not even a mention in the keynote. Not pictured in the iPod family lineup. I thought it may finally be dead. But no, there it sits, unchanged from last year, on Apple’s site. A relic now in more way than one, what with the spinning hard drive and the click wheel. I will be truly surprised if the classic still exists as a product after next year’s fall event.

iTunes

Apple unleashed the tenth major iteration of iTunes, iTunes 10. Steve explained that since the iTunes Store is about to surpass CD sales, they decided to ditch the CD out of the icon. I very much like the look of the new icon. I’ve thought for a while that the CD sure seemed dated this day and age.

Other enhancements, according to Apple, are a new hybrid view, where you’ll get album artwork for 5 or more songs that are from the same album in list view. 

Apple also set out to strengthen music discovery by creating a new social network inside iTunes called Ping. Follow artists and friends and be followed, create a circle of friends, post your thoughts and opinions, see customized song & album charts, and see concert listings. 

I’m not too sure about Ping, but I have yet to try it out, as iTunes 10 went from “Available Today” to “Coming Soon.”

One last note that I noticed from the screen shots is that the close, minimize, and zoom buttons (at least on the Mac) have gone from being horizontal to vertical and in line next to the player controls, saving ¼” of space of vertical window real estate. It’s a small thing, and seems odd compared to the rest of Mac OS X, but let’s face it, screens are getting wider, not taller. I like it, and I hope the rest of Mac OS X goes this way in the next major update.

One More Thing Hobby

Since the introduction of the Apple TV in 2007, Apple has referred to it as a hobby. The hardware had remained unchanged except for a hard drive bump from 40GB to 160GB. But it’s the one Apple product I can think of that hasn’t had much success. Why? Well, according to Apple, customers want Hollywood movies & TV shows, everything in HD, lower prices for content, no reliance upon a computer, no worrying about managing storage, no syncing, and they want it to be silent, cool, and small.

The new Apple TV is ¼ the size of the old, fits in your hand, the content is in HD, and is on a rental model. HD movie rentals are available day and date with DVD releases for $4.99, and TV shows are available to rent for 99¢. The content is streamed straight to the device, and there is even support for Netflix Instant.

AirPlay

Now let’s talk about AirPlay. There’s been a technology in the AirPort Express called AirTunes for a while now, which let you stream music from iTunes to speakers connected to an Airport Express. AirPlay replaces that, and expands upon it. One feature of AirPlay is the ability for any iOS device to stream content to an Apple TV. And not just music, but videos and photos too. Let’s say you’re watching a movie on your iPad, but you decide to move to the living room. A couple taps, and the iPad pushes the movie onto your TV via the Apple TV. Same goes for an iPhone or iPod touch. This feature will come with iOS 4.2.

Another expansion of AirPlay is it won’t be limited to AirPort Express and Apple TV. Third parties will be able to embed AirPlay compatibility into their devices. According to Engadget:

That means you’ll be able to stream music from iTunes, your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to speaker docks, receivers and stereos from companies like Denon, Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins, JBL and iHome, complete with song, album, and artist info and album art.

Sounds like a winner to me.

Wrap Up

Overall, I think it was a great event. I hope the trend will be to live stream keynotes in the future. I know my mother is already green with envy for the new green iPod nano, though I’d rather her have an iPod touch for FaceTime (are you reading this, Mom?) I’d be surprised if these new iPods aren’t on a few of my relatives’ Christmas lists. 

Twitterrific 3: Sharper, Leaner, & Universal

With many major iOS related launches, The Iconfactory is usually present with one of their flagship brands — Twitterrific. Back in July 2008, Twitterrific 1.0 was one of the first apps available on day one of the App Store; Twitterrific for iPad was there for the iPad’s launch; and Twitterrific 3 decided to tag along for the launch of iPhone 4 and the Retina display.

Now if you already have Twitterrific for iPhone, or Twitterrific Premium for iPhone, you can stop clicking “Check for updates” as those versions of the app no longer exist in the App Store. Instead, The Iconfactory elected to combine the new iPhone app with the existing iPad app to simplify development and avoid customer confusion.

This does mean for owners of Twitterrific Premium that this is a paid upgrade if you want the Premium features. I bought Twitterrific Premium 1.0 on day one of the App Store in 2008. When 2.0 arrived, I enjoyed a free update. Now, with 3.0, the universal iPad and iPhone app is free, supported with advertising, and a $4.99 in-app purchase will take away ads and unlock multiple accounts.

If you have an iPad and had previously bought the iPad’s in-app purchase, you simply have to update your iPad app, which now includes the universal iPhone interface, install it on your iPhone, and tap the Buy button for the in-app purchase, and as long as you are using the same iTunes Store account, it will unlock it for free.

Now, why not just stick with Twitterrific 2? Well, Twitter is turning off basic authentication for logging in at the end of August, and switching to OAuth for logging in. This means any app that isn’t using OAuth, such as Twitterrific 2, will no longer work after the cutoff date. But this is just one reason to upgrade.

Here’s a list of reasons to upgrade:

• Universal application for iPhone & iPad
• Greatly simplified, easier to use interface
• Full OAuth support
• Complete landscape support (new to iPhone)
• Optimized for Apple’s new retina display
• Supports fast app switching in iOS 4
• Increased API calls per hour
• Supports both official & old-style re-tweets
• Twitter list support
• Save Twitter-based searches
• Expanded media upload services
• Custom media upload support
• Improved color-coding of tweets
• VoiceOver accessiblity
• Inline picture viewing
• Reply to all

My impressions? It takes serious stones to scrap all the features from your app and only add back the absolutely necessary ones. But the results are a lean, fast, and easy to use iPhone app. If you are the kind of user who wants everything under the sun including the kitchen sink you may want to look elsewhere.

But if you want a great reading and composing experience you’ll love the new Twitterrific. I honestly believe there is something to be said about a minimalistic app that just brings the essentials to the twitter experience. I think new users will especially love Twitterrific, as a flood of features in other twitter apps can be intimidating. Also, being optimized for iPhone 4’s Retina Display, Twitterrific is absolutely stunning to look at.

I applaud The Iconfactory for taking such a drastic overhaul of their flagship iPhone app, which combines the best and brightest features of Twitterrific 2, and the elegant simple interface from the original iPhone app.

Twitterrific for iPhone and iPad is available as a free download in the App Store, with a $4.99 in-app purchase to remove ads and enable multiple accounts. 

Square - Making Payments Mobile

Square is a service I had been waiting anxiously to come out of vaporware-land and into reality since I found out about it in late 2009. Square allows you to take credit card payments from your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Android 2.1 device — as long as you have a WiFi or 3G connection. 

I did a first look a while back and I have since received my Square Reader. It definitely works as advertised. Once you activate your reader with your account you can instantly take a payment. It is super easy. Launch the app, plug in your reader, enter your items, the price, and hit Payment, select Credit Card, and swipe the card.

Then you’ll hand your device over to the payer for them to sign and enter their email address for their receipt to be sent to them.

It is truly a simple system, and doesn’t require a merchant account, no monthly fees, and they even send you the reader for free. They do, however, take 15 cents off every credit card transaction, and additionally 2.75% for swiped card or 3.5% for keyed in card numbers. All in all, it’s a tiny fee considering the other savings from monthly fees. Also, 1 penny from every transaction fee goes to charity:water, which is completely awesome.

Now, there are some limitations that weren’t revealed until I was able to activate my reader. I’ll just go ahead and make a list:

• Card payments have hindering caps. As of this publication, card payments are limited to $100 per transaction, and $700 per week. This is lame. I shared some correspondence with Square’s friendly support team about this, and they initially said the first rollout of Square is purely intended for personal use. I told them that is how I intend to use it, and $100 per transaction is too low for even that. Heck, their first video shows a guy selling a couch for $300. Anyway, after pointing that out, Square agreed with me that the limit is too low, and they are planning to raise it after building out their underwriting infrastructure. 
• If you are intending to use it for business right off the bat, Square is not currently supporting EINs. Also, that aforementioned limit may be a hindrance. Square assured me EIN support is coming soon.
• They are disparities across the apps. Here I am talking about the iPhone (count iPod touch in there when I say iPhone) and iPad apps, as I haven’t played with the Android app. Mainly, the iPad supports sales tax and inventory, and the iPhone doesn’t. Here’s why these disparities are odd to me: they’re the exact same app, with different user interfaces. The Square app for Apple devices is universal, meaning it is one codebase that displays a different interface depending on which device it is on. So the code is there, but Square didn’t design a user interface element for something like sales tax on the iPhone. I also raised this question with Square, and they said these features are on the list. 
• Payer signing is a one shot pony. If your payer screws up their signature, there isn’t a clear button to try again. This is a problem, since payers sign using their finger. It is unfamiliar, and it should stand to reason that it might take a couple tries. The only recourse is to take a “signature” that looks nothing like the payers real signature, or to clear out the entire transaction and start from scratch. Unacceptable, and Square offered no comment on this.

I honestly chalk up all of these to start-up jitters. Square is an infant company trying to revolutionize the credit card payment industry. I have no doubt that the issues will be addressed in time. The question is will they be addressed sooner or later?

Overall, Square does allow for drop dead easy payments, and I’ll probably get a ton of use out of it once the limit is raised somewhere in the ballpark of $300 or $400. Let’s face it, I have some previously loved electronics to sell, like, an iPhone 3G on June 24th, when I get my iPhone 4.

If you have any other questions for me, sound off in the comments.

First Look: Square

Square. It’s a shape. It’s a fundamental part of mathematics. It’s a tool of precision used by carpenters. Soon, I think, it will become synonymous with revolutionizing how regular folks pay each other. 

Square is a small company in San Francisco that is aiming to make payment via credit or debit card simply and easy for individuals and small businesses alike. Let’s face it, if you’ve owned a business and applied for a credit card terminal, it’s an expensive process, you’re bound to monthly fees, and everything is dependent upon your personal credit score.

Square does away with all of that hassle. Most of you already have the primary part of the terminal, too. Square is an app available for iPhones, iPod touches, iPads, and Android phones. Word on the street is apps for more platforms are on the way. You simply download the app, sign up for an account, and Square ships you a tiny plastic square with a slot for swiping cards and a headphone jack to connect to your mobile device. No monthly fees, no credit checks. What does Square get out of it? 15¢ per transaction plus a small percentage (2.75% for swiped cards, 3.5% for manually entered cards). Out of a $25 transaction, you keep $24.22. And a penny of that fee goes to a charity of your choice.

How does this all work? Well, Square has made two videos, one during their testing phase, and the other which appeared today with their official launch. 

One thing I like a lot about Square is the ability to give electronic receipts, and also help track your cash flow on their website. And the ability to tag those transactions with geolocation is very cool. And Square can also track cash transactions, and issue receipts for them, free of charge. Basically, your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Android device become your register. Square can also account for tax, tips, and track the frequency of repeat customers, perfect for having a reward program (think buy 9, get the 10th free).

I received a shipment notification this morning that my Square reader is on its way. I’ll report back with a hands on after I receive it.

If you’re interested in Square, go grab the app off iTunes or the Android marketplace and sign up for an account.

The Future, Unveiled

Apple today took the wraps off iPhone OS 4. My first reaction — what’s left for the haters to complain about? Who am I kidding, they’ll always find something.

The laundry list of improvements is staggering and downright impressive. Apple highlighted seven of over 100 new user features, and noted that developers will have over 1500 new APIs at their disposal for creating apps.

The seven “tentpole” (their word, not mine) features are:

1. Multitasking
2. Folders
3. Improved Mail
4. iBooks on iPhone & iPod touch
5. New Enterprise Features
6. Game Center
7. iAd

My thoughts on these:

Multitasking

As many folks are probably saying right now: Finally. I, for one, understood Apple’s stance in the past on multitasking, how running apps in the background would significantly drain the battery and slow responsiveness of the device. After all, the iPhone is a communication device, and what’s the point of background processing if the thing will be dead in an hour? 

As it was with copy & paste, Apple may not be the first to implement multitasking, but they are doing it better. Their idea is to multithread via seven different services available in the API.

• Background audio
• Voice over IP
• Background location
• Push notifications
• Local notifications
• Task completion
• Fast app switching

Examples: Pandora can stream it’s audio and use the pop-up screen controls normally reserved for the iPod app while the rest of the app basically falls asleep. Skype can continue a voice call or monitor for incoming calls. TomTom can continue to give directions while you switch to the iPod app. Push notifications as they are now can continue to be used. Local notifications allow for apps to post reminders or other events without using an Apple server. Task completion allows Flickr to finish uploading a picture while you move on to something else. And fast app switching essentially freezes an app while the user handles another task in another app. 

This method of using services cuts down on a lot of processing overhead while allowing the user to move on with their digital lives.

Folders

Folders allow you further organization of the home screen. Currently, with the limitation on how many home screens are available, only 180 apps can be seen on the device maximum. With folders, 180 folders can be present, containing a maximum total of 2,160 apps!

I can already tell I can consolidate my 5 home screens down to one or two, since I already use those screens as a rudimentary folder system (only two of them are chock full).

I consider this a very welcome feature.

Improved Mail

By far, this one stands out as a gigantic improvement for me personally. With the addition of Universal Inbox, I may actually put more than my MobileMe account on my phone. Apple is also adding the ability to thread conversations, which is something I have desired more than a universal inbox. There is also fast inbox switching, which I haven’t yet seen the details of how that works.

iBooks on iPhone & iPod touch

Since getting the iPad, I have really been enjoying the iBooks app. So far I’ve only gone through the included copy of Winnie-the-Pooh with my son over the past couple nights, and it has been great. Well, Apple is bringing the same reading experience to the iPhone and iPod touch, along with the iBookstore. Thankfully, purchases and the place you last left off in a book will wirelessly sync between all your iPhone OS devices. Kind of like Kindle’s WhisperSync. I’m thrilled about this.

New Enterprise Features

Now with faster warp speed! Wait, no, not that Enterprise.

Apple is beefing up security and services for business users, such as:

• Data protection
• Mobile device management
• Wireless app distrubution
• Improved Mail & Exchange Support
• SSL VPN support

 And that’s about all I care to cover on that.

Game Center

Apple is forming a social gaming network that will allow developers to have their games invite friends, matchmaking for multiplayer, leaderboards, and game achievements. Think Xbox Live for portable games.

iAd

Apple is breaking into the mobile advertising space. Why? This is what Jobs had to say on the matter:

“Developers [who create free apps] need to find a way to start making their money,” Jobs said. “A lot of developers turn to advertising - and we think these current advertisements really suck.”

His reasoning for this is the current situation of ad interaction within apps. When an ad is tapped, the user is yanked out of the app entirely and dropped into Safari. Apple is betting that if ads interact with a user within the app, more ads might get clicked. I say it’s a gamble. I personally am not an ad clicker, except on accident. That’s also why I opt for paid versions of apps over ad-supported versions.

I don’t know how much the average developer gets from ads that they place in their apps right now, but with iAd, Apple does all the work. They sell and host the ad, and the developer gets the larger slice of the revenue — 60%.

Other Features

Other features that were either mentioned or just shown on the screen :

• File & delete Mail search results
• Search SMS/MMS messages
• Web search suggestions
• Choose image size in Mail messages
• Bluetooth keyboards
• 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
• iPod Out
• Home screen wallpaper
• Search SMS/MMS messages
• Wake on wireless

Items in that list I am interested in are home screen wallpaper (loving this on my iPad), upload to Nike+ (no need to let iTunes handle it), and Birthday calendar (currently the only calendar that I have to sync via iTunes, because MobileMe doesn’t handle it). Another is nested playlists (I think that means folders in the iPod app).

Things Missing

An overhaul of the notification window system would have been nice, and so would a status summary of notifications and events on the lock screen. Also, no word on when AT&T will support tethering on the iPhone. This one is seriously beginning to bother me. It’s been over a year since tethering was announced and in two months it will have been a year since the feature has been available in the rest of the world. AT&T needs to get with the program, or Apple needs to make an iPhone for Verizon, which says it can handle the traffic. 

Final Thoughts

Apple says that OS 4 is slated for release to iPhones and iPod touches this summer, and iPads this fall. 

This is also the first OS release that won’t cover all devices. First generation iPhones and iPod touches won’t receive the update.

And like last year with the original iPhone not supporting MMS, the iPhone 3G and the second generation (late 2008) iPod touch will not have multitasking. I suspect this is because both devices have 128 MB of memory, versus 256 on the iPhone 3GS, third generation (late 2009) iPod touch, and the iPad.

I would be a little miffed since I own an iPhone 3G, but I had already planned on upgrading this summer as soon as a new model is released. 

Overall, this looks like a great step for the iPhone OS platform. People who have downloaded and installed the beta OS have said it is the most stable beta 1 release they’ve seen from Apple for iPhones. All things considered, this looks to be a maturing step for iPhone OS.

I highly encourage watching Apple’s video of the event.

Predicting the Future of iPhone OS

In a few hours time, Apple will pull back the curtain on iPhone OS 4. As you’ll recall, Apple’s invitation stated that invitees would “get a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS.”

Prior to Apple events, I tend to throw in my predictions. Last time I was wildly wrong. So this time I am going to keep things conservative. The usual suspects have spoken, and I am going to ride their coattails. There are three things I think will be added to iPhone OS:

• Multitasking of some sort for third party apps
• An advertising platform for free apps, and
• Support for higher screen resolutions.

 Multitasking and screen resolution are the things Apple has been getting slammed on since the Motorola Droid and the HTC Nexus One Android phones came a-knockin’. Now, I’m sure Apple will have many more things to trumpet about. I’m just not sure what those will be.

I do, however, have my own little wish list.

Mail

• Unified inbox
• Threaded messages

iPod

• Folder support
• A freaking quick-scroll bar in the Playlist section
• Get rid of cover flow

Lock Screen

• Status summary of notifications/upcoming events/weather/etc.

Notifications

• New system for presenting these. The blue grey pop up box just doesn’t cut it.

Tethering

• I’d like to see AT&T actually support this here in the US. But, I’d actually like to see this taken one step further. I’d like to see the iPhone gain support for mobile hotspot. Some new smartphones are featuring this ability to take the phone’s 3G signal and then turn the phone into a WiFi hot spot for other devices. I’d love to see this feature, but I have doubts as that would cut into sales of 3G+WiFi iPads. 

Those are a few things I’d like to see happen with the iPhone. Some, like mobile hotspot, would likely require new hardware. Support for higher screen resolutions could be in advance of new iPhone/iPod hardware and/or taking a step toward unifying the versions of iPhone OS that iPhone/iPod run on versus the iPad’s flavor.

All will be revealed soon. Any last minute comments from the peanut gallery?

Apps Are the Name of the Game for Kindle

I remember on January 28, 2010, when Steve Jobs unveiled the long awaited iPad, I immediately looked at my month-old Amazon Kindle with a feeling of pity. It was soon to be obsolete. By far the best e-book reader in the world was going to be outshone. Sure, eInk is nice, but no one will deny that a color screen is truly captivating. 

And the greatest contrast is the capability of the hardware itself. The Kindle does one thing — read books. At least that’s the only thing it really does well. The iPad can become just about anything one can imagine. An eInk screen can’t stand up to that. And Amazon knows it. 

Have you taken a look at Amazon’s home page in the past few days? No? Here’s a screenc apture of the relevant part, which is front and center at the top of the page.

Amazon is really pushing the free Kindle reading apps across a whole lot of platforms including, you guessed it — the iPad. Even more interesting is the tiny image of the Kindle hardware at the bottom. It’s basically waving about screaming, “Look at me! I’m still relevant! Buy me instead of any of those!”

Come on. The Kindle hardware is likely going to be put out to pasture. My guess is that Amazon really cares about selling eBooks, and they seem more than happy to provide the software for any device you want to read those eBooks on. 

Apple Sends Invites to iPhone OS 4 Event

Moments ago Apple sent out invitations to an event demonstrating iPhone OS 4. The invitation shows a partial 3D model of a number 4 casting a shadow  onto a blue background. The text on the invitation reads “Get a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS.”

The event will take place at 10 AM PDT on 8 April, 2010 at Apple’s Cupertino Campus. Let the wild speculation begin.

Addendum: It just clicked after the initial jaw drop that this is in 3 days. THREE. DAYS. Color me officially shocked.

Magical

I awoke this morning with the scheme in my mind of running out and buying a wifi-only iPad. The Best Buy in Fargo, ND (where I am visiting family for the holiday) would surely have some in stock, and it opens at 9 am. At 8:50, I sat in my hotel room, telling myself to let it pass. So at 9:40, I assumed the store would be sold out, but have display models available. So I went to play with a demo unit, just to say I had touched an iPad.

Well, Best Buy had received 30 of each capacity, instead of the rumored 15 total. I called my wife. She said, “It’s up to you.”

iHave an iPad.

Thoughts:

Regarding the Keyboard

The portrait style keyboard is small. Whereas on the iPhone I prefer the portrait style keyboard, the landscape keyboard is superior. The portrait keyboard is too small to treat like a normal keyboard, but the iPad itself is too wide in portrait to hold and thumb-type at the same time.

The landscape keyboard darn near perfect for those of us used to the MacBook family’s keyboard or the Apple Wireless Keyboard. I can nearly touch type.

(Speaking of wireless keyboards, you can connect them via Bluetooth to the iPad. I haven’t tested this as my wireless keyboard is several hundred miles away.)

Regarding iPad Apps

Astonishing. Sure, many that I have tried have slight bugs, but considering nearly all of them were built on a simulator and not actual hardware, I’m amazed. Twitterrific for iPad is fantastic, but you can definitely tell that it was rewritten from the ground up in 60 days. Delivery Status Touch is eye-catching. The Kindle app for iPad is far superior than the Kindle hardware itself! All of this is amazing. It’s inspiring to see how many iPhone apps were made more functional just by allowing a larger canvas on which to paint.

Regarding iPhone Apps on iPad

Garbage. The only pixel-doubled app that looks good is Canabalt, and that’s because it’s intentionally pixely to begin with. Everything else looks like garbage. iPhone apps need to be given a facelift to compete on iPad.

Heck, you can tell the iPhone apps are pretty much running in a simulator on iPad, (akin Rosetta on the Mac) because when you go to enter text you get a pixelated iPhone keyboard instead of the iPad’s keyboard.
Regarding Browsing

Joy. Browsing the web is a fantastic joy. The Facebook app (which hasn’t been redone for iPad) has been all but obsoleted by the fact that Facebook.com works great on the iPad! Except for chat.

Websites render quickly and, most often, correctly. I expect many of the fraction that doesn’t render correctly soon will. Yes, I’m looking at you, Sites Made in Flash.

Regarding Reading

Reading is so nice on the iPad. Even outside. Outside there is glare, but text is still crisp and readable. The Kindle app is very nice, but iBooks takes the cake. It comes with a complimentary copy of Winnie-the-Pooh, which is nice, as I have a toddler. It’s also a classic.

The interface melts away and allows you to focus on reading. And I actually like the page curl animation, and how the page turns only as fast as you turn it.

It doesn’t feel exactly like a paper book, but it’s not supposed to. It does, however, feel like a digital book should — casual.

Final Thoughts

There is so much more to cover on the iPad than I can possibly handle in the first brain dump. Overall, I am convinced that the iPad is the forerunner to the future of computing. I imagine that at the end of this decade, personal computers will look more like the iPad than a laptop.

The iPad feels less like a large iPhone, but rather a more casual MacBook. When Apple first described it as magical, I thought it was a little corny. I stand corrected — the iPad is a truly magical experience.

One More Thing

This review was written in Pages on the iPad, save for then being edited on my MacBook Pro to insert some links and header formatting, as the Squarespace app hasn’t yet been updated with an iPad interface.

Apple Highlights Sites with HTML5 as iPad-Ready

Earlier today Apple launched a new section on the iPad page detailing popular websites that are iPad ready. There’s quite a few heavy hitters on that list such as CNN, The New York Times, Vimeo, and Time. All of those sites and more are making sure when you, the consumer, visit from an iP.ad, you can see everything without needing Flash.

It isn’t secret that Apple dislikes Flash. Heck, it isn’t a secret that I loathe Flash! Anyway, I thought the fact Apple is giving HTML5 video was worth mentioning.

My ultimate thought: You want your site listed on that site.