iPad

∞ iPads help disabled people vote

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Voters in five counties are filling out and returning their mail-in ballots for a Tuesday special primary election to replace former U.S. Rep. David Wu, who resigned following a sex scandal. A handful will mark their ballots not with a pen but with the tip of their finger.It’s the latest attempt at using new technology to help voters with disabilities cast ballots privately.

∞ Making the impossible possible

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Adam Satariano and Peter Burrows for Businessweek: About five years ago, Apple (AAPL) design guru Jony Ive decided he wanted a new feature for the next MacBook: a small dot of green light above the screen, shining through the computer’s … Continued

∞ Nook Color cuts price, adds Hulu, more

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Engadget: Based on leaked slides that we’ve received, the Nook Color will be dropping to $199 by November 16th, but the $50 price savings ain’t all that B&N’s throwing your way. The Nook Color v1.4 update will bring along some … Continued

∞ Apple is not worried about the Kindle Fire

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BGR:

Following a meeting with the pair of Apple chief officers, Reitzes delivered a note to investors suggesting that the company sees Amazon’s forthcoming tablet as good news for the iPad. The Kindle Fire’s low price point makes it accessible, but Apple believes it further fragments the Android ecosystem, which may cause consumers to flee to the iPad.

This is just what I said back in September. Kindle Fire will be successful, but it’s not an iPad killer.

∞ My iPad guitar setup

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People have asked for my iPad guitar setup, so I thought I’d post a few pictures of what I use. Many of the people that email me ask how I write songs on the iPad. The fact is, I don’t. … Continued

∞ More tablets than PCs for schools

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Neil Hughes for AppleInsider: IT directors who spoke with Piper Jaffray indicated that within the next five years, they expect to have more tablets per student than they currently have computers. And since the iPad represents 100 percent of tablets … Continued

∞ More stupid advice for Apple

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Apple has been incredibly successful over the last decade, but yet there are people out there that always think they know better.

Jason Perlow for ZDNet talking about what Apple must do:

If we have learned anything at all from the company’s most recent 3rd quarter sales figures, we must ultimately recognize that Apple’s revenue is highly based on an annuity or semi-annuity model of repeat customers. Repeat customers are bread and butter, but it does not create growth.

Clearly Apple has not grown at all over the last 10 years. They don’t rule the smartphone market, iTunes doesn’t sell any songs or movies, and the App Store is sure to fail any day now.

∞ Trick or Treat at the iTunes store

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It’s Halloween weekend and the fun is about to begin. You don’t need to go out to enjoy yourself, you can visit Apple’s iTunes store and pick up movies, apps, music and other media to help you celebrate. 99 cent … Continued

∞ 15 other offers RIM could use to sell PlayBooks

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Message from Jim: Earlier today RIM began offering a “buy 2, get 1 free” PlayBook deal. I thought it would be appropriate to help the company come up with some other special offers. I contacted Darby Lines, aka The Angry Drunk, to work some of his magic.

Take it away Darby:

  1. The Sampler package: Buy 4 PlayBooks and get a Samsung Galaxy Tab, a Motorola Xoom, an HP TouchPad and a Dell Streak. Enjoy the full range of crappy tablets.

∞ An informal e-book study

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Marco Arment:

In the past, I’ve always recommended the Kindle over other e-ink readers, and buying Kindle books instead of iBooks on iOS, because Amazon had the biggest library of relevant titles and strongest content ecosystem.But Amazon’s advantage is no longer as clear in my casual searching.

I just buy from iTunes. Apps, music, books, movies, videos, TV shows. Everything. Convenience rules.

∞ Good news for RIM; someone sucks more than they do at making tablets

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Jon Fingas:

Motorola Mobility pained a dark picture for its tablet strategy with its results on Thursday. The company shipped just 100,000 Xoom tablets in the summer, or less than a quarter of the 440,000 from the spring and less still than the 250,000 from the winter launch. Motorola gave no explanation for the drop.

A possible explanation is that they suck balls.

∞ SoundCloud releases iPad app

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While maximizing native iPad capabilities like multi-touch and page swiping, SoundCloud’s app takes full advantage of the iPad interface to allow users to touch the newly designed waveform of the sound captured, allowing for a more social experience, which also includes more space for scrolling comments. In addition, users can now record private messages and send them directly to other people on SoundCloud.

∞ PlayBook OS 2.0 delayed until 2012

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In an apparent effort to make sure I had something to write about today, RIM announced that it has delayed the release of its PlayBook OS 2.0 software until February 2012. CrackBerry.com reported the news last night. The full text … Continued

∞ Glenn Fleishman reviews AirPort Utility for iOS

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AirPort Utility for iOS is the perfect tool for configuring and troubleshooting Apple’s gear without having to lug a laptop around, but it needs to improve its handling of password storage. When it comes to networking, Glenn is the man.

∞ Moron

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Sascha Vongehr:

Now it is not exactly news that Apple products are overpriced and of relatively low quality…

To prove his point he shows an iPhone 4S being dropped from shoulder height. I think the writer must have been dropped on his head from shoulder height.

Talking about Siri, Vongehr again shows how moronic he can be.

∞ iOS 5 Newsstand's impact is significant

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Jeff Sonderman for Poynter:

Since Apple launched it last week in the latest version of its iOS operating system, its impact has been immediate and significant. Many Newsstand apps now rank among the top free apps overall, and magazine and newspaper apps are benefiting from a surge of downloads and subscribers.

And some people said the App Store wouldn’t impact magazine and newspaper subscriptions at all.

∞ Apps should seem almost magical

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I’m asked to test quite a bit of software and give feedback to the developers. Sometimes that goes well, others times, not so well.

To me, making an app simple to use — whether on the iPhone, iPad or Mac — doesn’t mean stripping out all of the features. All that does is make the app less useful for the user.

∞ iOS 5 Weather app includes hourly forecast

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I’ve been using iOS 5 for a few months and I never noticed a change to Apple’s built-in Weather app. A friend sent me an iMessage this morning and asked if the hourly was new. Sure enough, there it is. … Continued