The commercial craze surrounding iPad gave us the impression that this nifty machine is small enough to trot yet packed with superior apps that would put an ordinary smart phone to shame.

Apple has made it a point, in fact, a selling point, that thousands of apps were designed specifically to iPad consumption. These apps range from the leisurely and educational to the business centered. At present, additional apps are still in the process of been developed to ensure that all kinds of processes are possible to be accomplished in the iPad.

Interesting apps are present in the iPad, which may not appear to be immediately useful, but to some extent, is on a good-to-know basis. For instance, there exists a table of elements app called The Elements that has absolutely no use for corporate individuals and just about everyone else. Unless we are still attached to academic Chemistry or have great propensity to create our own potions, the Table of Elements seems like a whimsical addition to iPad’s list of apps. But it does not hurt to find this app, for one, it could come in handy in the face of an alien take-over.

One useful app would be the Epicurious, a comprehensive indexed cookbook. The user could randomly search for a recipe by simply using one of the ingredients names as the search keyword. It will return a list of recipes that includes the key ingredient and the user can further narrow down the search by adding more key recipes.

Other lifestyle apps are offered too that can supplement the Epicurious app such as the Grocery IQ and Mcormick Recipes apps among others.

Games and entertainment apps have a wide array of selection from scholarly to mundane to high speed racing. Even the game apps have been specially redesigned for iPad. Gaming is such a great experience on the iPad because of its rich display, ultra fast processor and multi-orientation screen. The user can flip the tablet from portrait to landscape to better enjoy the gaming activity.

Scrabble and Soduko are two of the most popular educational game puzzles that were integrated into the iPad apps. Puzzle games such as Labyrinth, Monkey Flight, Traffic Rush, Superstar Chef, Bloons Light and more. For the puzzle addict, iPad sounds like a stairway to arcadepuzzle games heaven.

Racing games have so many incarnations in the list of iPad apps such as Real Racing HD, Asphalt 5, F1 2010, Fast Lane Street Racing Lite, Fast and Furious The Game Test Drive, Need for Speed: Undercover among others. There are about hundred of racing games to choose from.

The iPad owner can decide which apps to download on the iPad depending on his lifestyle or tastes. Everything is available on the App Store and almost all of it has been rehashed to adapt to the iPad’s specifications. With over a hundred thousand of apps to choose from, it would be impossible not to find one that will spark one’s interests.

SofShell has designed a case for the iPad 2 which is equipped with a little more friction grip than most. Allowing you to place your iPad 2 on to angled surfaces without the worry of it sliding off and dropping on to the floor.

Its even been put to the extreme test just incase to forget your iPad 2 is placed on top of your car. Just remember to place it somewhere on the car where the wind won’t get underneath it and blow it off. Watch the video after the jump to see the SofShell case stick to a Porsche doing 60mph.

The second video below also shows the case gripping to glass, which is taken vertically over 90 degrees. To prove just how much grip the SofShell iPad 2 case has.

If you need that much grip on your iPad 2 case, the SofShell case is available to purchase for $50 from the SofProducts website.

Research In Motion is learning a hard lesson in tablet sales. If you want to compete with Apple’s iPad, you can’t launch a half-baked slate and hope buyers will scoop up your product based on promise and potential. Yet that’s exactly what RIM did when it launched its BlackBerry PlayBook, a nifty 7-inch tablet with a slick operating system, intuitive controls, awesome multitasking, and other high points, but missing critical features like native email and contacts support — do’h!

As a result, RIM only sold 200,000 PlayBook during the last quarter, a rather dismal number that in and of itself doesn’t tell the whole story. After reducing its outlook, RIM was hoping to sell 490,000 PlayBooks last quarter. Ouch. But what really hurts is that amounts to a little less than 1 PlayBook for every 23 iPad devices sold during the same period. That’s what you call a gut punch, and now it’s time for a gut check. Should RIM abandon tablets like HP did?

That isn’t in the cards, at least not yet. Instead, RIM Co-Chief Executive Mike Lazaridis told investors the company is starting up a bunch of programs designed to push PlayBook sales, including special rebates and deals for existing customers, CNet reports. How much of a price cut? Mr. Lazaridis didn’t say, though it’s safe to assume it won’t be a $99 fire sale.

Pricing is only part of the problem, however. For many the real deal breaker is the lack of native email, contacts, and calendar support. These are inexcusable omissions for a modern device and it’s even more egregious that they’re still missing. Come next month, however, RIM’s PlayBook 2.0 update will address these shortcomings and throw in an Android app emulator for good measure, as well as some other goodies.

Too little too late? Not really. As we stated in our review, “our feelings towards the PlayBook are positive,” RIM just needs to ship a finished product and do so at a discounted price. Hang tight for a month and it looks as though both of those will happen.

Shocking news has just hit the wires out of Cupertino, Apple’s own CEO Steve Jobs has just officially announced in an open letter that he will resign as CEO. The time has come for him to step down and he has named Tim Cook as his replacement for CEO. This is shocking and sad news to say the least.

Apple has already confirmed that Jobs will stay on as Chairman moving forward. Without getting into all the details here is the full open letter below.

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

The news is just breaking and we will be sure to report more on this as we hear more details. We would like to take this moment to welcome Tim Cook and we at SlashGear will give him our full support. Here is the official press release below directly from Apple.

Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple

Tim Cook Named CEO and Jobs Elected Chairman of the Board

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple’s Board of Directors today announced that Steve Jobs has resigned as Chief Executive Officer, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s new CEO. Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately.

“Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”
“Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company,” said Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, on behalf of Apple’s Board. “Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”

“The Board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO,” added Levinson. “Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does.”

Jobs submitted his resignation to the Board today and strongly recommended that the Board implement its succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO.

As COO, Cook was previously responsible for all of the company’s worldwide sales and operations, including end-to-end management of Apple’s supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets and countries. He also headed Apple’s Macintosh division and played a key role in the continued development of strategic reseller and supplier relationships, ensuring flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

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is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Most of the recent rumors about the upcoming next-generation iPhone have focused on September for its release, but a new DigiTimes report is pushing it out a month to October. However, iDevice fans might be appeased if another piece of the report is true: an iPad 3 coming at the same time.

We’ve said before that the iPad 2 was more of a stopgap, intermediate iPad, and that the iPad 3 would be the one that iPad 1 owners should wait for. DigiTimes’ report is short on details about the iPad 3, but previously it’s been speculated that the iPad 3 would have a “retina display.”

However, DigiTimes indicates that the iPad 3 will have a 250ppi display, short of the iPhone 4’s retina display, which is 326ppi, and short of the magic 300ppi number Apple CEO Steve Jobs used for the term, which has been called “marketing puffery.”

If he wants to call it a retina display-based iPad, he’s going to have to readjust his “sights.”

On the other hand, the report indicates that the iPad 3 will be even thinner and lighter than the already remarkably thin and light iPad 2. DigiTimes also seems to disple the latest rumors on two different iPhones being released this year, mentioning two devices only, and including in that the next-generation iPhone and the iPad 3.

It’s still unclear if the iPhone will be an iPhone 4S, minimally changed externally, or an iPhone 5, with many changes. Interestingly, this week was the four-year anniversary of the original iPhone’s initial sales date, while the iPhone 4, the most recent model, went on sale more than a year ago on June 24, 2010.

The iPad has reached a notable milestone: There are now over 100,000 applications made specifically for this tablet. Considering the iPad has been available for less than a year and a half and developers have only had access to the iPad’s software development kit since January 2010, this is a noteworthy accomplishment.

Although the iPad launched with the promise of supporting “almost all” of the apps previously on the App Store, many applications still benefit from a design that is made specifically with the larger screen of the iPad in mind.

When Apple introduced the iPad 2 in March of this year, the company said it had about 65,000 applications in the App Store designed with the iPad in mind. A few weeks ago at WWDC, the company said it was up to 90,000 apps.

By now, I am convinced that the iPad 2 is not nearly as popular as the initial reactions to the new tablet suggested.

If you are looking for purchase advice, the overwhelming majority of media is providing reasons why not to buy the iPad 2 (yes, we provided that advice as well as there are plenty of reasons why you should consider buying a different tablet.) The reality is, however, that there are good reasons why you would want to buy the iPad 2. The bottom line is that it is a damn good tablet.

1. You don’t have an iPad yet

If you haven’t purchased an iPad yet and you have the funds available to pay more than $500 for such a device, then it’s somewhat obvious that you would be looking to get the newer product, rather than the older device. This is mainly a financial decision and if you don’t mind spending the extra dollars over discounted gen-1 iPads, you may enjoy the fancy new look of the iPad 2. Current iPad owners contemplating an iPad 2 purchase may also consider getting rid of their original iPad now and sell the tablet while the demand for the iPad 2 is strong and keeps iPad prices at a higher level. Don’t expect to get much dough for the old iPad once iPad 2 supply has caught up with demand.

2. You have an iPhone 4/Mac/iTunes Account

At this point, you could be thinking whether it really has to be an iPad 2? Maybe you should get an Android device? The fact is that tablets feel cozy in their ecosystem that is growing around a technology platform, which would be iOS in this case. The iPad 2 will provide you with the latest iOS version and a few new features. An Android tablet does not make much sense if you own an iPhone and/or a Mac as the value of these devices is in the platform. On the other hand, if have an Android phone and you buy an iPad/iPad 2 you should not expect to be able to take advantage of the full value potential. An Android tablet may be the better choice in the long term.

3. Choice

Perhaps that is just me, but I look at tablets that are about to be released and I am wondering whether those guys are joking. $800 for a rival tablet? Huh? You may be spending just as much for an iPad 2, if you climb up the spec ladder and choose a much more capable model than the $499 entry-level device. However, the iPad 2 provides more room to purchase a device that fits your wallet and not just the requirements of a manufacturer’s balance sheet. Don’t mistake the iPad 2 to be a bargain device – it is an expensive toy on the lower end. But Apple doesn’t force you to choose a one-size-fits-all tablet. If you need more choice, you can personalize your iPad 2 with colored covers, which would be my personal top reason to get the iPad 2 and not the original iPad. Choice is hidden value we tend to forget.

4. The Processor

This is one for geeks that provides some sort of investment protection (if you really buy this kind of argument.) We haven’t seen any benchmarks yet, but we have heard plenty of reports that the iPad 2 is fast. Two cores tend to be faster than one, if applications support multithreading. There could be applications that tap into the horsepower and provide a much smoother user experience. And hey, two cores are twice the bragging rights of just one core.

5. Apps!

The software and available applications are a big deal. 148Apps.biz tells us that there are currently more than 358,000 active apps in the App store. We know that there are tens of thousands of dedicated iPad apps. Compared to Android, there is an obvious application advantage. The new iOS software upgrade delivers Facetime, which won’t work in the original iPad (well, duh! The old iPad does not have cameras) and there’s now a personal hotspot feature that works with the iPhone 4. In the end, the iPad 2 itself will get boring pretty quick – it’s the apps that will allow you to get value out of the device. At least for now, the iOS platform has the app advantage and future apps may be catering to higher performing processors.

Tablets like the iPad 2 are still luxury items and purchases are often guided much more by emotions than by cold reasoning. However, it does not hurt to think about the value proposition and which tablet would do the most for your needs, before you run out and purchase an expensive device simply because it has an Apple logo on it and Steve Jobs tells you that it’s magical.

Source: pcmag.com

As we are forcing our way out of Apple’s distortion field again and as we are regaining our common sense, we are noticing that Apple’s iPad 2 isn’t exactly the flawless product that has been painted on the flashing presentation screen.

Don’t get me wrong, it appears to be a solid upgrade in the usual Apple style, but if you are among us mortals, those who have to take peek into the checking account before hustling over to the Apple store, should remember that there are some painful downsides and there is a chance that you may regret the purchase of an iPad 2 (which will cost you, on average, $628, according to Apple).

Here are my top five reasons (which add up to one cumulative reason) why you should not buy the iPad 2.

1. It has a really crappy camera

It is suspicious if Apple introduces a new feature everyone has been asking for and then does not talk about it. There are two cameras in the iPad 2 – one antiquated camera for your video chats, some call this “facetiming”, and VGA (640×480) resolution and a 720p back camera with a still camera and 5x digital zoom. However, that is not a 1280×720p camera, as the specs suggest, but apparently the iPod Touch’s 960×720p camera which turns out to be about 0.7 megapixels or the kind of digital camera you would have bought in 1996. The digital zoom is due to its pixel interpolation process virtually useless. Overall, the iPad 2’s cameras are really an insult to the term “digital camera” in the year 2011.

2. There is no 4G

There has never been the right time to buy a computer and this year may change the tablet environment in a similar way: When you choose a shiny new tablet and walk out the door, it may already be old, because you just missed an announcement of a much better and new generation device. Granted, the iPad is brand new, but the lack of 4G integration or a conclusive upgrade path is a letdown. 4G preparation should be part of the iPad 2 to support its web browsing and content consumption focus. However, you could be sarcastic and be happy that there is no 4G: In the end, it may trick you into using much more bandwidth your AT&T plan allows you to use. So, if you are looking for an excuse to purchase the iPad 2, consider it a feature to protect your finances from the greedy hands of AT&T.

3. Where is that retina display?

Among the expected updates for the iPad 2 was a retina display with a much higher and crisper resolution. That was a no-show and the iPad 2 is stuck with the same 1024×768 pixel display as the iPad. Sure, apps run much faster and some apps may run smoother, but they will look the same. This may actually not a bad thing for the iPad itself, as this lower resolution display will somewhat conceal the actual picture quality that is delivered by the 0.7 megapixel camera. With growing competition it is likely that the next iPad will deliver a higher-resolution display and a much better camera.

4. Flash

Supporting or not supporting Flash has almost been a religious issue and we have seen trends that Flash may actually be on its way out. But the fact is that there is still plenty of compelling flash content out there and the recent introduction of stage acceleration support eliminates Steve Jobs’ concerns that Flash is inefficient and consumes too much battery and processor power. It’s nice to have a device to actually run flash apps without staring at empty content space and remember that you just shelled out more than $500 for a web content consumption device. Steve Jobs’ lecture that Flash will die reaches only so far. Can we just agree that this whole argument is not really about security and efficiency? It is about protecting Apple’s walled apps garden. If you want to have access to all popular types of Internet content, including Flash, the iPad is not for you. Period.

5. No USB, No SD

When Apple introduced the iMac in 1996 and told users that they really do not need a floppy drive anymore, we wanted to agree with Steve Jobs, and we had to, eventually – but it was a painful decision. Apple offered iDrive, an online data storage solution in place of the floppy, but we were dealing with 56K data connections and just downloading a new web browser took about 2 hours. Today we have to deal without common storage solutions such as USB and SD in the iPad/iPad 2 and you scratch your head over the same question: How do I get a lot of data from one place (a digital camera, for example) to this thing? Well, cloud computing could be a solution (just hope you are not on AT&T’s 200 MB data plan when you are on the road) – or another expensive Apple accessory to transfer pics from your camera to the device. But hey, it has an Apple logo on it, so you know that there are some detours you will have to accept.

The Bottom Line

All those reasons above add up to one main reason why you should not buy an iPad 2. In many ways, it is just a minor upgrade over the original iPad and in its basic feature set, the new iPad is, for its primary purpose of web browsing, just as good as the new one. If you look at it with common sense, the new iPad 2 is a bridge device that will lead to a much more substantial upgrade next year.

If you have an iPad already, there is no reason to buy a new iPad 2, other than you have $600 or more laying around growing mold. And if you don’t have an iPad, you may consider the original iPad, which we hear is seeing dropping prices. The crappy camera, the software update and the dual-core processor may not be worth the extra expense.

Source: pcmag.com

Apple today introduced the iPad 2, the next generation of its highly successful iPad tablet computing device.The new case measures 8.8mm thick compared to 13.4mm on the original. To put that in perspective, it’s thinner than an iPhone 4. Apple is positioning the latest iteration of iPad as thinner, lighter and more robust than its predecessor.

Apple will take its popular iPhone 4 to 17 more countries, making Europe the largest iPhone market. The iPhone 4 will be essentially unlocked in the U.K., France and Canada, meaning it can run on any GSM carrier. Gartner’s U.K.-based analyst said problems with Apple’s innovative iPhone 4 antenna are not expected to hurt sales.
Apple’s iPhone 4 will ramp up its world tour Friday, reaching new markets in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia. The popular but trouble-plagued handset has been available since late June in France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom for the same cost as the U.S. version, $199 for the 16-gigabyte model and $299 for the 32-gigabyte iPhone. Apple has not announced price points for the new markets.

“iPhone 4 will roll out to many more countries later this year and Apple will announce availability and local pricing for these additional countries at a later date,” the company said.

Europe Is Largest Market

iPhone sales in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, have been strong as new carriers join the scene, said Carolina Milanesi, the U.K.-based vice president of mobile devices for Gartner Research.

“Europe — all countries combined — is now the largest market for Apple,” said Milanesi. “Spain will move to more carriers at the end of this month, which leaves Germany as the only market with an exclusivity deal. In Asia, there are many carriers Apple is working with. The largest markets [by country] remain Australia and Japan, with Hong Kong, China and Korea following.”

The new countries for the iPhone 4 are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Additional markets will be named in August with the eventual goal of selling the iPhone in 88 countries by September.

Bad publicity for Apple from the signal difficulty experienced by some users because of the iPhone’s unusual antenna design is not expected to take a major toll on iPhone sales. In disclosing third-quarter earnings last week, Apple executives said 8.4 million iPhones were sold, although most of them were before the iPhone 4 was released on June 24. Apple says it sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s in its first three weeks.

Perception Abroad

The impact abroad will be minimal, said Milanesi. “The antenna issues, although covered in the press (in the U.K.), have not been as big as in the U.S.,” she said. “There has been coverage in media and blogs about the actual signal not being impacted as much given better network coverage.”

Mobile carriers that provide GSM service for the iPhone abroad include Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, Telefonica, TIM and Orange. Apple has said it will sell SIM-free versions of the iPhone in the U.K., France and Canada, which will be essentially unlocked versions that can then be used with any GSM carrier.

In other iPhone news, Apple announced Friday that the white version of the iPhone 4, which would match the appearance of MacIntosh computers and some iPods, won’t be on the market any time soon.

“White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year,” the company said. “The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.”