The 4.3 release of the iPad’s OS has boosted the tablet’s performance by 18 percent, according to some reports. (Much of that increase in speed comes from the rewrite of the Safari web browser. It feels snappier on our first-gen model.) If the stories of the newest iPad have you hankering for one right away — instead of the 3-4 weeks Apple is promising today — then the now-faster, first-edition iPad is available at a serious discount from Apple in its online store.

By purchasing an Apple certified refurbished model, you can drive down the price to $349 for the 16GB model with wi-fi only. Refurb is a great way to get Apple’s products for less; the company replaces things like batteries in the mobile devices before reselling them, and the warranty is the same as a new product.

Apple stock shot up $4 a share to $356 this morning on US exchanges, in heavy trading. As of this morning, despite the unavailability of the new model, there are still original iPads for sale. But the 3G models are disappearing fast, if measured by inventory at Amazon. Only four of the 64GB and two of the 32 GB original models with 3G were still for sale at Amazon near Apple’s prices.

The iPad 2 is now being sold, in very limited quantities, at Amazon by third party resellers. (Apple didn’t release the iPad 2 for sale at Amazon as an official channel.) uShop Mall is selling the iPad 2 through Amazon for $400 above retail price for the 3G 16 GB models. iFixit reports that these newer versions don’t have all the advantages over the one-year-old tablets. Servicing an iPad 2 carries a good risk of shattering the protective glass during the repair. Apple switched from clips to glue in redesigning the fasteners for the newer model.

Pogue and his boys review the newest iPad

The only iPad you can buy today is the original generation’s models. Apple sold out its first build of the product in less than a day over the kickoff weekend. Apple built up less than enough inventory to immediately satisfy customers hungry for the iPad 2. Delivery times at 1 AM Pacific were quoted at 2-3 business days, regardless of model. By mid-morning the deliveries were 5-7 business days. Now the orders placed will be fulfilled through Apple’s online store in 3-4 weeks.

That’s right; it means that unless you were up ordering at early morning, the soonest you will receive a new iPad model will be April 1-2. That’s one week after the device goes on sale outside the US. Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray estimated the company sold 500,000 across retail outlets and Apple’s online stores. The first edition of the tablet sold 300,000 units.

Despite the simultaneous outlets of Best Buy, Walmart, Target and the two phone carriers in the US, nothing was available to purchase one hour after the iPad 2 went on sale in retail settings. The tablets disappeared in 37 minutes at a local Verizon shop here in Austin. The ATT outlet across the parking lot had only four on hand to begin with. At Verizon, they were eager to order one, to arrive in the official monthlong waiting period.

The prices at retail outlets are no better than those at the Apple Stores, and an online order costs the same. Free shipping is part of every order now — but the Apple Store online offers free engraving.

The most fun review that I’ve seen so far comes from the New York Times’ David Pogue, who employs his two young sons in explaining what’s improved while we see the boys goof and cavort and even drop the new iPad. They demonstrate the most sizzling apps on the new device, Garage Band and iMovie. The latter obviously has more business uses than the former. Also mentioned is the new gyroscope, which when developers tap into it, gives app users the chance to observe a product in 3D and manipulate moving parts. Great prospect for an interactive sales catalog.

Wallace Wang's My New iPad from No Starch Press

My New iPad was written by a stand-up comic, but the advice in this thorough book is no joke. The 350 pages of this manual ($24.95 print plus ebook, $19.95 ebook) from No Starch Press don’t overlook a thing in the iPad user experience. It’s a guide to the 1st generation of the iPad, written in Deb. 2010. iPad 2 users can look forward to another edition in May, but this book does include specifics on the recent iOS 4.2 release. Apple rolled out version 4.3 of the iOS today.

The new iPad user can rely on this book like a novice cook reading The Joy of Cooking. The tasks explained, from setting up email accounts to synchronizing contacts, all include a novel What You’ll be Using feature.

For example, to transfer ebooks and audiobooks to the iPad, you’ll need 1. The iPad’s USB cable; 2. iTunes on your computer; 3. The iBooks app. The range of possible ingredients is vast these days for Apple owners, with some software on desktop/laptops, and other programs on iPads. This feature keeps things well-sorted-out. There’s a generous layout that leaves plenty of room for screen shots — very important for new-user books.

Another element that’s extraordinary is the “Additional Ideas” wrap-ups for each chapter. After you’ve learned how to do something like set up and customize an email account, it’s good to see the bigger picture and deploy what you’ve learned to do. Establishing separate accounts for work and home, or customizing your signature, may seem obvious to some. But a user who’s new to the Mail in iPad, coming from a Web-based mail service, can find this deeper dive aspect useful.

If you own an iPad already, this book will provide the training to take it to another level. I’ve learned that every onscreen keyboard key can be held down to reveal its alternative characters. Great for speeding up your typing.

Bookmark management is another insider kind of task you might have overlooked if you already own this device. A lot of this kind of technique is hidden away in the Settings app of the iPad. You’ll feel a lot more comfortable with Settings by using this book. Read the rest of this entry »

After almost a year on the market, it’s time to look at whether an iPad can be desktop replacement. If it can’t today, Apple may have another answer to the question, “How can I make my carry-on lighter and smaller?”

I took only my iPad on a couple of business trips this winter, and it served well. Most airports require you to take the iPad out of the carry-on, despite what you may have heard. It has writing and editing tools, the ability to connect to mail and social networks, and bare-bones blog posting and editing tools. I didn’t being along an Apple Camera Connector to hook up my point-and-shoot Canon to the iPad; that would have helped. Instead, I pushed my iPhone camera photos though the web to my mailbox, then pulled them onto the iPad. On that last element, I wished for a nice MacBook Air.

The Air only weighs a pound more than the iPad and takes up just two extra inches in length. What the Air does not have is a multi-touch interface. You can get hooked on that.
What’s more, many of the best apps on the iPad just don’t have a desktop equivalent. Now that there’s an iMovie and GarageBand written for the iPad, there’s a chance for a real iPhoto there. But there’s already plenty of photo editing tools, good ones, on sale for the iPad.

I took along my Kensington Bluetooth Keyfolio (above) on the trip, but that’s become a bit of a disappointment. Between the Keyfolio’s jumpy key repetition, and the ever-vigilant auto-correct on the iPad, it’s actually a bit faster for me to use the onscreen keyboard. It becomes easier to do so if you turn on clicks in the Settings for the keyboard.

Zagg has a nice keyboard and metal case combo, but you still must expose the back of the iPad in that arrangement. Both the Kensington and the Zagg have physical keys, but the Zagg doesn’t use the rubberized keys of the Kensington. I tried out the Zagg at Macworld Expo, and it types faster than anything.

But the recent introduction of Thunderbolt, with its display-plus-disk or printer connections, promises another kind of faster future for mobile computing. This is a category that includes a technology which Apple is not using yet — but there’s still another mobile computer where Apple could use the upcoming Wireless USB. Read the rest of this entry »

Business cards may seem like a throwback to a simpler time, but they’re still in high use today. I carted a sheaf of them to Macworld Expo recently and came back with a fistful of new ones to integrate. WorldCard Mobile from Penpower — which gave me a $5.99 copy of its app to evaluate — makes card entry and organization painless.

It’s a little bit of a miracle for this old dog to point my iPhone at a card, snap a picture and then have it Recognize the card and its fields, and slip them into my Contacts app. Often this happened without a shred of extra work on my part. Sometimes I had to make an edit or two. I even had an arty business card that used a very stylized “A” in the middle of the contact’s name. WorldCard Mobile never blinked at the challenge. Mary got her first name plugged in automatically.

There’s features to share cards and contacts over email, and the app files its own “stack” of cards. It also stores the original photo of the card for reference. A very useful feature gives you the ability to take an email signature block and recognize it into the WorldCard database. There’s more editing needed on a signature block than a card, but it saves a lot of work of cutting and pasting, old-style.

There are not a lot of features in World Card Mobile. That decision follows classic app design, to do something really well and not gunk up the rest of the app. At $5.99 it will pay for itself within the first hour you use it on business cards. You gotta figure it will work with the new iPad 2, which will include the product’s first back-facing camera.

Highly recommended. There’s no end in sight to the business card. But using an iPhone or iPad with WorldCard Mobile to put these into a database is a nice upgrade to the old card scanner + software solutions. This is also a great example of how an app for iPhone can beat any desktop Mac application, just by focusing on one good thing.

The latest version of iOS that drives Apple’s mobile products expands the utility of the iPhone 4 and iPads in ways that are easy to see.

To start, the iPad now supports FaceTime, using its new video cameras. CEO Steve Jobs said in a presentation today that “the iPad is the ideal size for video conferencing.”

FaceTime now allows a user to flip the front and rear facing cameras of both the iPhone and the iPad 2.

The iPhone 4 includes tethering, to deliver a 3G connection to a device.

iMovie for iPad (a new app) has a precision editor, multitrack audio recording, new themes and AirPlay to work with Apple TV. Apple has created a full-featured video editor on a mobile device that can play videos created with the product.

The iMovie app is available at the App Store for $4.99.

Led by an appearance from its CEO Steve Jobs, Apple today announced the specifics of its new iPad 2, still priced starting at $499. All of the prices are the same as the original iPad, running up to an $829 model including 3G and 64GB of storage. All models ship on March 11, the first day anyone can order the device. Models that add 3G will be “Coming Soon,” the same advice Apple is supplying for the wi-fi model. It appears that there will be no delay in getting 3G on the new iPad, unlike the original model. Ordering will be online and in stores on the same day. Overseas, in 26 countries, the wi-fi device ships on March 26.

It’s up to twice as fast, with graphics 9x faster — but same 10-hour battery life, relying on the new A5 processor. The design of the new device will give 9 hours of video watching time using 3G, according to Apple’s specs.

“We’ve done things with this iPad that we never could have done before,” Steve Jobs told the crowd of analysts and media at the Yerba Buena Events Center in an hour-plus unveiling.

The iPad 2 will ship in both white and black models. The resolution of the screen on the new device is the same as the original model.

Apple has full specs on the new iPad online at its website. It also has a business-focused roundup of the new product’s features at http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/

The device supplies HDMI graphics out through a new $39  accessory cable. Output is up to 1080p. This can mirror what’s on the iPad screen.

Front and back-facing cameras have been added, video-capable. In another improvement, Apple has returned the ability to use the outside switch as either a way to mute the sound or lock the screen rotation.

It’s 33 percent thinner, 8.8 mm, thinner than the iPhone. Its weight has dropped from 1.5 lbs to 1.3, but it still uses a metal case.

Speaking of cases, the new iPad case has microfiber to clean the screen, starts up the device when you open it, and acts as a stand while it protects the screen. Apple has built magnets into the iPad, along with magnets on the case’s hinge cover.

Cases, perhaps to the consternation of the vast case industry, will sell in both leather ($69) and vinyl ($39). And come in a raft of colors.

Apple has replaced its original iPad with the new model, having pulled down the ability to order the older devices from its online store. It has added a free engraving feature along with the usual free shipping offer.

As the iPad makes its way into the hearts and plans of the enterprise, businesses let the device make its way into office workflows. The Quickoffice family of apps makes mobile office work possible and even pleasant, with access to the cloud.

Share slides and docs via the cloud

There are more clouds than ever to share work through, thanks to the latest version of Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite. In addition to Google, Dropbox, box.net, and Mobile Me’s iDisk and Web interface, the suite’s been integrated with two additional mobile cloud storage providers, Huddle and SugarSync. And what’s on the way in a new version is support for social publishing partners Slideshare, Scribd and .docstoc.

We’ve used Quickoffice for about six months here as a regular iPad tool. It’s got built-in accommodations for Microsoft’s Office tools, so you can save and trade and edit files for things like Word and Excel. Last year they added Powerpoint support, and at year’s end the Suite gained the ability to edit Powerpoint slides. When I think of the trips where slide edits might have made a difference, if only the right person in the company could get to them, this editing is one of the best arguments for pushing your office work, via these clouds, to the iPad. Read the rest of this entry »

Verizon is reporting that its pre-ordered units of iPhone 4s have sold out. The company says the sales total is the highest ever for any single phone that Verizon has sold in pre-order.

The phone will be available in Verizon’s stores next Thursday (Feb. 10). From the looks of the notice on the website, the company will start taking orders again at 3 AM on Feb. 9.

Analysts and pundits are tracking the release of this model of iPhone closely. They hope to get fresh data on the popularity of the device based on its offer from the second largest carrier in the US. The iPhone has been available from dozens to hundreds of other carriers throughout the world — the US is the only country where ATT has had an exclusive contract to sell and supply a network for the phone. But Verizon’s customer base represents the largest untapped source of mobile phone users for the iPhone.

Some analysts believe that the release of the Verizon iPhone — which is getting rave reviews for its phone signal reception vs. ATT’s model, as well as simple and strong tethering to give wi-fi devices access to the Internet outside of wi-fi networks — will add millions of customers for Apple and its array of iOS app providers.

Downloading The Daily news took about 3 minutes

The iPad is counting Day One of The Daily, the first everyday newspaper created for the iPad and iOS. A massive download of the free app, plus three minutes of downloading each issue a day (on demand) gives you plenty to talk about with clients on visits: News, Gossip, Opinion, Arts & Life, Apps and Games, and Sports (sections of the paper)

Of note: No specific business section. The publishers, after all, also own The Wall Street Journal, which has its own app and subscription needs. The Daily is produced by the biggest news organization on Earth, News Corp. Not a peep yet about whether the app is headed for the Android tablets, as well. If that happens, it may offer a metric to measure popularity — how well will this first tablet-only newspaper do in these two markets.

There’s photos to view and video to play inside the stories of The Daily, up to 100 articles worth of coverage per day. In this app release, The Daily joins the ranks of Zinio, which for almost a year has been a digital newsstand for iPad and iPhone and Mac owners, selling weekly and monthly publications like The Economist or Smart Money. Zinio has been previewed a slick new version of its app, set to release around the time the new iPads start shipping. Both Zinio and The Daily provide social network sharing of articles, as well as pushing copy via email. Great for researching for staff projects.

The Daily is a grand experiment in stalling the decline of the newspaper. Big metro dailies, which may have given you something to chat up with local clients during your coffee-shop meetings, have seen circulation dive. The LA Times is reported to have gone from 1 million subscribers to 600,000 on daily issues over the last few years.

There are other ways of getting iPad-ready news, for research as well as social sharing. Zinio’s got multiple-platform ability: Macs and PCs, as well as phones. And the New York cousin of the Times is pushing software that delivers papers to anything that can run Adobe Air — which eliminates the iPad and iPhone.

Read the rest of this entry »