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- Considering Buying an Android Tablet for all the Great Native Apps? Think Again
- WWDC Sold Out – Tickets Available on eBay for $4,500
- How many iPad 2s were sold so far? Answer to come on April 20
- PadGadget Daily App Deal – 6 iPad Apps on Sale
- iPad 2 Hack Enables Wireless HDMI Video Mirroring
- The Cosmonaut – A Wide-Grip Stylus for Your iPad
- Amazon Releases Cloud Drive and Cloud Player Services, No iOS Support
| Considering Buying an Android Tablet for all the Great Native Apps? Think Again Posted: 30 Mar 2011 03:11 AM PDT
Nearly a month after the Motorola Xoom was released, the first Honeycomb tablet, the number of Android tablet apps available in Google’s Android Market has hardly budged. According to Electronista, developer Justin Williams looked through the Android Market and found there were fewer than 100 Android 3 native apps. Electronista reports approximately ”14 core apps are still truly native, while a total of 50 include both the native apps as well as those phone apps with basic resizing for the larger screen.” Williams says there actually may be more native apps available, but Google’s Android Market doesn’t currently provide an easy way to search or filter tablet specific apps.
While the number of Android 3 native apps is rather disappointing, customers can always run other Android apps. Android currently has over 150,000 apps available and most of these apps will run on the newer Android 3 tablets like the Motorola Xoom without any issues. While the apps may not take full advantage of the tablet’s new capabilities, many will scale to fit medium density screens. The lackluster Android 3 app support could have many root causes. Electronista speculates that Google’s rush to get the OS out the door didn’t leave enough time for developers to begin working on apps. While it’s true that Google only released a beta SDK a month before the Xoom launched, two months should have been plenty of time for interested developers to get apps out the door. When the iPad originally launched, Apple was able to get over 2,000 native apps in the App Store. Developers had a little more than two months to build their apps so the lack of Android 3 native apps seems a bit curious. With more Android tablets hitting store shelves later this year, developer interest may increase as consumers start snapping them up. So ask yourself this question, is it worth waiting three or four weeks for an iPad 2 and enjoying over 75,000 iPad native apps from day one or do you buy a Xoom and wait for developers to start making native apps? Choices, choices!
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| WWDC Sold Out – Tickets Available on eBay for $4,500 Posted: 29 Mar 2011 09:55 PM PDT
Apple ran out of tickets for its yearly WWDC in a matter of hours, and if for whatever reason you couldn’t grab yours quickly enough, several sellers are already offering tickets for sale on eBay. Be prepared to pay an overinflated price, as tickets sell for as much as $4,500. The situation is very similar to what is currently happening with the iPad 2, as a slew of eBayers are trying to make a buck by selling Apple products otherwise impossible to find. If you absolutely need to go to the conference, and couldn’t buy your ticket on time, the auction giant might be your only option. Note that if you’re ok with paying two to three times the regular price for a WWDC ticket, you might want to buy it quickly, as Apple will likely ask eBay to terminate the listings sooner or later – WWDC tickets are non-transferable tickets. » Related posts:
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| How many iPad 2s were sold so far? Answer to come on April 20 Posted: 29 Mar 2011 09:24 PM PDT
Apple just announced that it will hold its second fiscal quarter of 2011 earnings call on April 20, 2011.
During the call, Apple will announce its revenue for the ending quarter, and the company is also expected to reveal how many iPad 2s have been sold since the launch of the device on March 11. The second fiscal quarter of 2011 is poised to be one of the biggest quarters ever for Apple, as the company introduced a slew of new devices, including the iPad 2, the Verizon iPhone 4, and new Macs. The first fiscal quarter of the year was already a record quarter for Apple, as the company posted a revenue of over $26 billion and a profit of about $6 billion. During this period, Apple sold over 7 million first generation iPads. Apple's fiscal year 2011 runs from September 26, 2010 to September 24, 2011. The quarterly earning call will be streamed live directly from Apple’s website on April 20, 2011, 2 pm PT (link for audio here). » Related posts:
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| PadGadget Daily App Deal – 6 iPad Apps on Sale Posted: 29 Mar 2011 08:47 PM PDT
We used our PadGadget Apps Tracker to find these great deals and we'll continue to look for the best app deals as they pop-up. Some of these apps are over 75% off, so be sure to check them out because they are on sale for a limited time.
We use our PadGadget Apps Tracker to constantly monitor the App Store to find the biggest price changes on iPad apps. Our editorial team goes through the data, picks the best deals on the most interesting apps and then brings them to you on a regular basis. All app prices are checked at the time of posting but prices are subject to change without notice. When developers put their games on sale it's usually for a very limited time, often 24 hours or less, so be sure to check pricing on iTunes before making a purchase.
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| iPad 2 Hack Enables Wireless HDMI Video Mirroring Posted: 29 Mar 2011 08:12 PM PDT
With the recent release of iOS 4.3 and Apple’s new Digital AV Adapter, iPad users can now display apps or movies directly on their High-Definition TV with the iPad’s new Video Mirroring feature. This certainly is great when you want to watch a movie on the big screen, but who wants the hassle of running an HDMI cable between your TV and iPad 2 every time. Not happy with having a wired tether when doing Keynote presentations, Eric Govoruhk and Kelly McAteer set out to create a solution. The two inventive hackers managed to cobble together an iPad 2 case capable of wirelessly mirroring the video from their iPad to a High-Definition TV using commercial off the shelf components. The solution uses Apple Digital AV Adapter to get video out of the iPad to a wireless HDMI transmitter which then sends the iPad video to a wireless receiver connected to the TV. To make the solution portable, the duo made a case to hold the video components and then added a battery capable of powering the device for two hours. All the components were bought from local electronics stores and cost about $275. According to the team, “the HDMI transmitter was $180, the Apple HDMI adapter was $40, and the battery was another $40. The rest went to scrap pieces for the wood and plastic to test out molds. This was all brick and mortar, so you can save a few bucks if you pick up the electronics online.” Wireless presentations may have been the initial goal of the project, but this capability could be even more useful for movies and games. Apple’s AirPlay technology provides an easy way for iOS devices to wirelessly stream video or music to an AirPlay ready device but currently there is no wireless video solution for streaming iPad apps. Apple has been pushing iOS devices as a serious gaming solution and has managed to take market share away from Sony and Nintendo. Many analysts have speculated that Apple would add apps and gaming capabilities to the Apple TV in a bid to take on TV based gaming consoles. Apple isn’t the only one that sees the iPad’s potential as a TV gaming system. Australian iOS developer Firemint recently announced they would be adding full 1080p video out capabilities to their hit Real Racing 2 iPad game. We fully expect to see other developers take a page from Firemint’s playbook and start including a TV out option for their games so customers can play on a big screen. If Apple doesn’t decide to add AirPlay support for all apps, we wouldn’t be surprised to see third parties step in to close the gap. While the above hack might not be ready for mass production, we could easily envision a clever iPad 2 accessory maker building this capability into a slick iPad 2 case. » Related posts:
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| The Cosmonaut – A Wide-Grip Stylus for Your iPad Posted: 29 Mar 2011 02:26 PM PDT
We’ve seen several stylus products targeted for the tablet market segment. There are some interesting options out there, but all the ones I’ve seen missed the idea of actually leveraging the iPad as a white-board. This is exactly what Kickstarter project, The Cosmonaut Stylus, was designed to achieve. The Cosmonaut Stylus is a “first” in a couple of ways. First, I really like the concept of a stylus being designed to help me sketch out quick ideas or write on my iPad. I agree with the creators, Dan Provost and Tom Gerhardt, in that when writing on my iPad most of the time it feels as if I’m writing on a white-board. Yes, I do use the virtual keyboard quite a bit for emails and basic writing, but there are many times when I just simply need a quick way to write down a few notes, and sketch something basic. In other words, there are times when I like that feeling of holding a dry erase marker when playing around with my iPad. Second, I haven’t seen other Kickstarter projects trying out a “pay-as-you-wish” pricing model, which basically means that you can pledge whatever you feel the Cosmonaut Stylus is worth to you. However, keep in mind there are a limited number (3,000) of funding slots available. As of today, the creators have collected $36,282 out of the $50,000 funding goal, which to me is a good indication of this clever design.
The Cosmonaut Stylus is a clever design that certainly deserves to get full funding. If you want to help the creators bring the product to market, simply go to the Kickstarter website to back this project. » Related posts:
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| Amazon Releases Cloud Drive and Cloud Player Services, No iOS Support Posted: 29 Mar 2011 07:22 AM PDT
As previously mentioned, Amazon was indeed planning to formally announce their “media locker” service this week. The company has rushed their cloud based service offering in an effort to beat Apple and Google to the market. The new service offers some very good features. However, Amazon has left out support for iOS devices, which is a huge chunk of the current mobile population and one that will grow without a doubt throughout 2011. Amazon has officially released a cloud service that consists of a few things. First, Cloud Drive allows you to store a minimum of 5GB of files on the web for free. Amazon also offers purchase storage plans starting at $20 a year for 20 GB. The company offers tiered plans for 50GB, 100GB, 200GB, 500GB and 1TB, which will set you back $1 per year for every gigabyte of storage. The Cloud Drive storage service allows you to upload your digital music library from any Mac or PC. If you purchase an Amazon MP3 album, you will be upgraded to 20 GB of Cloud Drive space. Any new Amazon MP3 purchases saved directly to Cloud Drive are stored for free and do not count against your storage quota. The storage service also allows you to upload and store all kinds of digital files – music, photos, videos and documents that will be available via web browser on any computer. Amazon supports storing your files in AAC or MP3 formats, and the company will upload those files to Cloud Drive in the original bit rate. But, what about playback options for your music files? Amazon offers Cloud Player for Web and Cloud Player for Android. Basically, the company has implemented an online player for those customers who plan to use the service with a Web browser from their computers. The player supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari for Mac, and Chrome. Notice there is no official support for mobile Safari. Some could argue that Amazon is deliberately blocking mobile Safari. As reported by TechCrunch, some users have been able to play songs in an iOS device by simply selecting the “download” option from the Cloud Player. That option downloads the music file and uses mobile Safari's built-in player to play it. However, not the way you would want a service to work on a iOS device. The Cloud Player for Android has been bundled with the new version of the Amazon MP3 app, which includes the full Amazon MP3 Store and the mobile version of Cloud Player. With this option Android users can use the app to play music stored on their Cloud Drive and music stored locally on their device. You might be thinking, why not release an iOS app to do the same thing for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch? This would simply compete with Apple’s iTunes Store, and as we all know, Apple will be releasing a new cloud service via MobileMe very soon. Amazon has won Round 1 with their new cloud storage service. Even though the company dropped a big bomb on their rivals, Apple and Google are gearing up for Round 2. Expect both companies to be ready. I would think that Apple will be unveiling some very attractive features soon. » Related posts:
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Frustrated that it’s almost impossible to find and buy and iPad 2? Thinking about buying an Android 3 (Honeycomb) tablet instead? Before you take the Android plunge there something you should know, there’s less than 100 native Android 3 Tablet apps.
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