Apple Reveals New iPad With 4G LTE, 5MP Camera And Better Display

by

The New iPadApple on Wednesday unveiled the iPad 3, although at this time it’s just called the “new iPad.”

For the first time the tablet based iOS system will feature a 4G LTE data connection and users will be greeted with a 9.7-inch Retina display.

Also up for grabs starting at $499 is a 5 megapixel camera that uses the same optics sensor as the iPhone 4S which also means 1080p video recording.

Speaking about the new display Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing revealed:

“[It has] text sharper than a newspaper. Photos will look incredible. Fonts look amazing. [It has] the best mobile display that has ever shipped.” [Read more…]

Amazon Can Now Stream Music To iOS Devices

by

Two months after its release, Amazon slipped in a small update to its cloud based music player adding adds iOS compatibility. The update allows users visiting the player from their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to stream music through Safari. However, it’s not without bugs.

Accessing Amazon’s cloud player through an iOS device required the use of a third-party browser but recently gained native Safari support. However, there are some interface issues that you need to be aware of:

[Read more…]

Twitter Drops QuickBar, Laments It’s Loss

by

Users loathing Twitter’s QuickBar (which occasionally featured Promoted Trends) will be glad to hear that Twitter will be removing the feature via an upcoming iOS update today.

While iPhone and iPad users will no longer be bothered by the feature, apparently Twitter had future plans for Quickbar that they never had the chance to test out.

The QuickBar was originally conceived to help users discover what’s happening in the broader world beyond people they already follow. The bar was also seen as a potential means of in-app notifications for new @mentions, DMs, and other important activity. […]

Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today. (Official Twitter Blog)

Although I personally wasn’t bothered by the QuickBar (since the app is free), it’s good to see the company listening and responding to the demands of users.

While the QuickBar was useful for trend spotting, most users probably want to focus on what is happening in their tweet stream than what’s the hot topic of the day.

If Twitter ever decides to resurrect the QuickBar in the future, they may want to make it optional (or at least opt out), that way users can turn off the feature if it begins to irritate them.

Did you like the QuickBar? Or are you glad Twitter is removing it from their official iOS app?

18 Million WordPress Blogs Are Now iPad Friendly

by

WordPress, one of the largest Blogging platforms on the web, has announced that 18 million of its self-hosted Blogs will be iPad friendly. Frankly, iPad users everywhere should be excited.

Automattic which owns WordPress.com, flipped the switch on its iPad optimized interface allowing Bloggers to create a custom mobile experience that doesn’t sacrifice content and formatting because a mobile device is accessing the Blog.

[Read more…]

Flickr Gets Cozy With The iPad, Adds Expanded Lightbox Support

by

Photo sharing site Flickr has been on a roll in its support of mobile operating systems and their accompanying browsers. A Windows 7 App that fully integrates in to the OS and presents a clean interface was released recently. Shortly after Flickr turned its sights to iOS and released an iPad optimized version of the site.

The new iPad friendly addition is a change to the light box. When browsing the site on your iPad you’ll be able to access a full screen photo viewer and initiate a slideshow:

We’re happy to announce some big improvements to the photo light box for iPad users! The light box is a handy, full browser photo viewer available from any photo page. From a photo page on Flickr, simply tap on a photo to view it larger (if available) and on a clean, dark background.

While Flickr has a native iPhone App that taps in to the power of iOS and the hardware, no native iPad exists yet. Flickr may opt to focus on its site and continue improving it for iPad users instead of releasing an official App. As fellow Blog Herald author Darnell Clayton mused, Yahoo’s growing commitment to the service and expanding features to mobile devices hints Yahoo! doesn’t want to shutdown the service like it’s doing with Delicious.

As expected, Apple introduces iPad 2

by

My pity goes to those who bought iPad yesterday.

As we were expecting, Apple has introduced iPad 2 with an entirely new design that is 33 percent thinner and 15 percent lighter than the original. While maintaining its 9.7-inch LED-backlit LCD screen, iPad 2 boasts of having Apple’s new dual-core A5 processor for faster performance. It now has two cameras for FaceTime and Photo Booth and for capturing 720p HD video. Despite all the new features, battery life remains at 10 hours. The new tablet also runs on both AT&T and Verizon’s 3G networks. Black or white? They have both colors. The new iPad 2 Smart Cover with self-aligning magnetic hinge is also an innovative piece of product by itself. Prices stay the same.

What was more stunning was the presence of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is currently on medical leave, to present the new product. The obviously ill head of Apple received a standing ovation from the throng of press people who witnessed the event.

“With more than 15 million iPads sold, iPad has defined an entirely new category of mobile devices,” jobs said. “While others have been scrambling to copy the first generation iPad, we’re launching iPad 2, which moves the bar far ahead of the competition and will likely cause them to go back to the drawing boards yet again.”

Would I buy iPad 2? I doubt. I’ll wait for iPad 3 which we expect to be better than iPad 2.

WordPress For iPhone, Meet Push Notifications

by

It looks like those of us using the WordPress for iOS app will soon be able to respond back to comments without having to install CommentPush.

Push notifications are coming along nicely! […]

We’re also considering push notifications for Likes as well. What do you guys think? What else would you want to have notifications for? (via Chris Boyd on Making WordPress for iOS)

According to Chris Boyd users would be able to visit the exact comment posted upon your blog from within your app which is similar to how Twitter for iOS sends users to the exact Tweet reply instead of merely opening the app.

This will make it not only much easier to reply back to comments in a timely fashion, but also help weed out human spam much faster.

As far as push notifications for likes goes, hopefully WordPress has a setting where users can turn this specific feature off as some blogs may receive hundreds of likes in a post (note: push notifications for likes is only available for WP.com sites).

This future update should also help WordPress stay competative against rivals, especially Squarespace (the latter which has boasted push notifications for several months now).

Note: Yes I know the WordPress app icon is upside down, but that was apparently done so the team could distinguish between the test app and the one approved by Steve Jobs app tribunal.

BraveNewCode: One WordPress Mobile Plugin To Rule Them All

by

It looks like PadPressed will be facing some competition as one of their rivals is not only embracing the iPad, but offering WordPress bloggers a less expensive price.

WPtouch ProTM has gained worldwide attention providing unique, rich and beautiful mobile experiences for website visitors on touch-based smart phones.

With WPtouch Pro 2.1, that great experience has been redefined and brought to the iPadTM, with a user-interface tailored for the iPad experience. […]

Since WPtouch Pro on iPad is a part of WPtouch Pro 2.1 (starting at only $39), you get incredible value, great features, product support & future upgrades— all at an extremely competitive, affordable price. (Official BraveNewCode Blog) [Read more…]

Reeder’s iPad App Copied By Google Reader Rival? UPDATE: MobileRSS Responds

by

Unlike Android which has an official Google Reader app, iOS fans have to rely upon the creativity and skill of third party companies to help them manage their feed accounts while on the go.

Apparently Reeder’s skill and creativity for their iPad App have been heavily “borrowed” by Nibirutech who recently announced a new layout for their MobileRSS HD iPad app (as shown in the image below).

More images can be seen over here, although MobileRSS is receiving a lot of scorn on Twitter right now, as many people are seeing the obvious similarities between the two Google Reader apps which are hard to ignore.

MobileRSS HD for iPad seriously rips off @reeder UI. Flattery or obnoxious rip off? (via @BinduWavell)

Thus far Nibirutech has yet to respond to these allegations, although the company may want to decide something soon as they have already lost support for MobileRSS from fellow iOS developers (Instapaper and Read It Later), and risk damaging their reputation further by delaying a response.

Note: We will update this post if we hear anything new from Nibirutech. [Read more…]

Christmas Comes Early For Squarespace iPad Fans

by

After announcing their intentions in June, the much anticipated iPad app for Squarespace has finally arrived! Although similar to its iPhone sibling, the iPad app pacts more features thanks in part to the larger screen size.

The iPad’s extra real estate gave us much more room to breathe and allowed us to pack quite a bit more into the mobile Squarespace experience. If you’ve used Squarespace for the iPhone, you’ll feel right at home with the iPad version. […]

The post editor is now one of the most powerful iOS text editors this side of Pages.  A good portion of the web editor has made it into the iPad app.  Just like in the iPhone version, you can change editing modes (Text, Markdown, Textile, Raw HTML), but now, if you’re in Markdown, Textile, or Raw HTML, you’ll be able to bold text, italicize, mark quotations, insert photos and links, and even set an excerpt!  Plus, you’ll find a very handy pair of undo/redo buttons in the top left. (Official Squarespace Blog)

If it were not for the lack of video uploading (which the WordPress iOS app has), I’d say that Squarespace has probably produced the best app for mobile blogging on the iPad, one that allows bloggers to easily create and edit content without having to fire up the notebook.

Squarespace’s embrace of the iPad is long overdue, and thus far this makes them the fourth company to officially embrace the device (as WordPress, LiveJournal and LiveDoor from Japan have launched official apps upon the iPad).

With the iPad not available to the masses, we may see the company finally focus on creating an Android app in order to help Squarespace compete against rival platforms.