You might have heard that last week, Apple announced the follow-up to its iPad, the iPad 2. There's a lot to say about the iPad 2, but I'm going to hold off until I actually get to hold one before I write about it. Below, however, is the promotional video that Apple put together for the iPad, and it's worth a watch, if only to see the extraordinary ways that they are being used around the world.
Google enables mobile printing for Gmail and gDocs via its CloudPrint service for any of its supported mobile platforms (Android 2.1+ and iOS 3+). This means that you’ll be able to print using these services from your Android phone, your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to any printer attached to your Windows 7 PC. Clever, and potentially very useful, especially as the tablet form factor becomes more central in offering library services.
Somehow, it looks like retailers TJ Maxx and Marshalls have scooped the tech world with the cheapest price yet seen for the iPad … $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model, a full $100 cheaper than anywhere else. No real word on how long this will last, or how many each store is getting, but this is definitely going to be your best bet for a cheap iPad for the holidays. In-store only, I’m sure, but definitely worth some phone calls to stores in your area if you’re in the market.
It appears that Samsung might be the first to launch a tablet that looks like it could actually compete with the iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Driven by Android 2.2, it’s an impressive looking setup. They just released a teaser trailer for it, below, and the full story is over at Engadget.
I expect to see more and more interesting tools using Dropbox now that they have a robust API in place, but this one is a no-brainer for anyone with an iOS device, especially the iPad. Habilis (gethabilis.com) does one very simple thing: it gives you a unique email address, and any file you email to that address is placed in your Dropbox.
For the iPad, this means that any file you create in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote is just one email away from being on all of your computers. Really great service, and I’m surprised that Dropbox itself hadn’t implemented it yet.
I normally try hard to not do too much cross-promotion between this blog and my personal blog, but in this particular case I’m making an exception because of the security vulnerability in question.
Apple has decided to allow individuals to publish their own works in the iBookstore via iTunes Connect…although it isn’t necessarily easy. You could already do this through a third party such as Lulu, and doing so might be easier, as they take care of getting your ISBN and such. But if you have a Great Work that needs to be read on the iPad, and want to…
The Barnes & Noble eReader software is now available on the iPad, making it an even better choice as an eReader. You can now access material from all of the major eBookstores except Sony on the iPad…Amazon, iBooks, and now B&N. Interestingly tantalizing…they left the “Lend Me” feature intact. If it wasn’t horribly crippled, that feature alone might be a reason to do most of your reading in the B&N universe of content.
We’ll see how the continuing Bookstore Wars plays out on the iPad…I’ll have a review of the B&N app up soon!
I’m going to be doing a series of videos showing off different lesser-known features of the iPad that are important for libraries and librarians. Here’s the first, looking at a little-known accessibility feature called White on Black.
I’d apologize for the amount that I’ve been talking about the iPad here on Perpetual Beta, but it’s only because I really do believe that it has the potential to be a genre-defining device, something new that changes the technology landscape. I hope that you can put up with just a bit more.
Last night, the Apple press embargo lifted on the iPad, and several of the digiterati showed off the device, as well as posted their reviews. Here’s two good videos of the device, the first from Walt Mossberg, tech guru from the Wall Street Journal, and the second is a special edition of MacBreak Weekly featuring Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times showing off what he’s learned while having an iPad for a week longer than the rest of us mere mortals.
Things I think are really key for libraries: the consolidation of the various eBook stores onto a single device, the ability, for the first time, to really have a good experience with Graphic Novels on a digital device, and the all-in-one media consumption that the iPad provides.
