Pre-orders for the iPad started this morning bright and early at 5:30 AM, Pacific time. This is just for the United States — for those across seas, iPad sales won’t begin until late April. Both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models are available now at the Apple store. Apple iPad accessories are also available for order — keyboard dock, dock, power adapter, case, headphones, etc…
After just two hours at sale, MacRumors tells us Victor Castroll from Fortune reported an estimated “51,000 orders in two hours.” Insane, but definitely not a shock. In 2007 when the iPhone first came out, Engadget says 270,000 units sold in the first 30 hours of sales. Could the iPad beat those numbers?
If you are still trying to weigh out the cons and pros of getting an iPad, I came upon two articles arguing each side. Dan Frommer at Business Insider “Just Ordered an iPad: Here’s Why.” And SmartMoney takes a hard look at whether or not you should pre-order an iPad. Note that Apple only allows a two per customer pre-order limit.
I’m going to come right out and say it. The Oscars were boring last night! Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are two hilarious talents, but last night… I was not amused. Where did Neil Patrick Harris go the rest of the night? That made no sense at all. Just because Hugh Jackman did a successful number last year doesn’t mean you should repeat it — especially if the singer is not also going to be the host the rest of the night! What happened, Academy?!
Well, all is not lost I suppose. I’ve got a blog post out of it! While sort of paying attention to the Oscars last night, my friend Alex screamed out, “What?! They have a 3D TV now?!” Yep, it’s true. According to Gizmodo, Best Buy will be rolling out a couple Samsung LED 3D HDTVs on March 21st.
As a massive company that relies on foreign contractors, “Apple is committed to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility wherever our products are made.” Apparently, those foreign contractors are not as keen on Apple’s outlook regarding social responsibility.
In Apple’s 2009 audit for 102 of their supplier facilities, 17 “core” (another word for “serious”) violations were discovered. This includes three cases of underage labor where, “Apple discovered three facilities that had previously hired 15-year-old workers in countries where the minimum age for employment is 16.” In addition, the auditors also “found records of 11 workers who had been hired prior to reaching the legal age, although the workers were no longer underage or no longer in active employment” at the time of audit.
There were also eight cases of workers paying “recruitment” fees over the limits of local law and workers at 24 factories that were earning less than local minimum wage — recruitment fees were collected for the benefit and privilege of being able to work.
Oh, and what else? Well, there were 48 factories cheated their workers of overtime and 57 factories that cheated workers out of rightful sick leave and other benefits.
You may have already heard: Apple is cleaning out their apps store. They’ve decided “to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store.” It’s definitely not a first for Apple… banning a particular genre of apps. According to PC World, Apple also banned GPS apps that feed the user location-aware ads and Apple-brand competing apps (such as Google Voice and “Flash of Genius” which mentions the Android).
TechCrunch uncovered this recent no-no after developed Jon Atherton, Wooble iBoobs, received a letter from iPhone App Review. Then there was the letter from Apple, that didn’t explain much. And today, a few guidelines have been uncovered through Atherton’s blog, ChilliFresh, regarding his app.
No images of women in bikinis
No images of men in bikinis
No skin
No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs
Apple’s press event wrapped up not too many hours ago announcing the official release of its tablet device: the iPad! Before Business Insider, Gizmodo, Engadget or any other tech blogs got a hold of the rumors, could you believe that MadTV was the first? Check out the 2006 episode below. Be forewarned that this is not a clip for the conservative viewer…
Okay, tell me that ad won’t run through your head every time you hear “iPad” from now on?! iPad is a HORRIBLE name!! But the product itself is pretty snazzy, I admit.
Yesterday morning, Apple announced an event for January 27th. “Come see our latest creation.” Held by invite only in San Francisco, news outlets are unanimous: Apple will be unveiling their anticipated tablet device. iSlate? iPad? (Please don’t call it the “iPad”; that’s a horrible name!) Whatever you want to call it, that’s what everyone is predicting and WSJ totally called it.
Fox News talked to a source at Apple who hints that the tablet may just be the icing on the cake. Fox reports “the event will likely focus on three projects: the tablet device, iPhone 4, and a new round of iLife 2010 software.” Since Google has been making so many news waves lately, I can see Apple using this press event as a way of gaining back some ground. iPhone 4, eh? I’m intrigued.
Gizmodo has an “exhaustive” guide to all things Apple tablet, if you need a refresher about what’s been said. They are also running a contest to win one!
The Wall Street Journal reports the unveiling of the much talked about Apple tablet later this month. The Business Insider says that will all take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on January 27th.
Plans to ship the tablet are not planned until March this year though, according to WSJ. A January announcement and a March product release… could Apple be throwing out some headlines to compete with Google in the press? I mean, this announcement reeks the doings of a controlled leak and Google is working with HTC to produce a Chrome OS Tablet, after all. Then there was the recent Google Nexus One announcement and additional product releases for March…
Here are a few gathered bullet points for the Apple tablet:
How are you saying good-bye to 2009 tonight? Sleeping like any other day? Dinner with friends? Clubbing with strangers? Counting down with Dick Clark (or is it Ryan Seacrest now)? Here at SoftwareNewsDaily, we wanted to say farewell by reminiscing our top 10 technology news stories of 2009. When I say “our” top 10 stories, I suppose it’s really more “my” top 10 stories. That’s okay, I don’t mind dominating the office opinion; they’ll agree with me. Counting down to the number one story, here are “our” picks.
There’s a rumor going around that Apple may be demonstrating the long-awaited Apple Tablet on January 26th, during a media event. Nick Bilton, blogger at the New York Times, proclaims 2010 as “the year of the tablet.” An inside source at Apple even told his colleague, “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.”
Business Insider tells us Apple has been telling select developers to begin making apps to support a full screen resolution mobile device. And Boy Genius Report is positive there will be a 7-inch Apple tablet to be announced in January.
Clever detective work led MacRumors.com’s Arnold Kim to find evidence that Apple purchased the domain iSlate.com back in 2007. The name, he predicts, that may be given to the new Apple tablet. Wired.com took to being Sherlock a bit further and found out more about the iSlate trademark — it was registered by a company called Slate Computing, perhaps a dummy corporation for Apple used to throw us off their scent?
The most intriguing Applet tablet rumor? Nick Bilton quotes an ex-Apple employee, “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.” What could it be?! How will technology freak me out now? Business Insider has 25 guesses.
Nuance has released another mobile application for iPhone, Dragon Search. Powered by their popular Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, the app lets you search the web just by saying the words. It’s the “fast, easy, and smart way to search online content on your iPhone using your voice,” declares Nuance. Voice your search and receive results from engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Twitter and iTunes. Their top five reasons for getting it?
Most convenient way to search on your iPhone
Amazingly accurate
Up to five times faster than typing
Easy to use
Safer and more productive while you are out and about
And the best reason that’s not mentioned? It’s a free download (at least for now). Download either Dragon Dictation or Dragon Search at the Dragon Mobile Apps site; it’s also available through iTunes.
As a massive company that relies on foreign contractors, “Apple is committed to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility wherever our products are made.” Apparently, those foreign contractors are not as keen on Apple’s outlook regarding social responsibility.
The 
How are you saying good-bye to 2009 tonight? Sleeping like any other day? Dinner with friends? Clubbing with strangers? Counting down with Dick Clark (or is it Ryan Seacrest now)? Here at SoftwareNewsDaily, we wanted to say farewell by reminiscing our top 10 technology news stories of 2009. When I say “our” top 10 stories, I suppose it’s really more “my” top 10 stories. That’s okay, I don’t mind dominating the office opinion; they’ll agree with me. Counting down to the number one story, here are “our” picks.
