It was only a matter of time before the iPad-loving populace started getting really creative with their new devices, and TechCrunch reader Zach Iniguez certainly gets points for inventiveness and romance, techie style! According to Zach’s email to TechCrunch, he actually used his iPad to propose to his girlfriend. After taking her back to the ice cream parlour where they had their first date, Zach told his girlfriend that he wanted to “field test” his iPad, before getting her to put on some earphones and handing her the iPad. He then proceeded to play her a slideshow with music and photos of the two of them, with a message at the end that asked “will you marry me?” Zach didn’t abandon tradition entirely, however, going down on one knee to finish popping the question! Happily the unnamed girlfriend said yes. “Maybe Steve Jobs is right,” concludes Zach, “the iPad is magical!”

By Maura Sutton, iPad Forum
[Source: www.techcrunch.com]

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph today, Apple has posted a job advert on its website for a “quality assurance engineer to work on video and stills capture with the iPad media team.” This innocent little ad has led to a lot of speculation that Apple might be looking to feature a camera in the next version of the iPad, especially since tech experts have already discovered that the iPad has a slot in its frame that is the perfect size for an Apple iSight camera. And, as if that wasn’t enough evidence, the Telegraph also reports that developers have found code within the iPad’s address book that would enable users to add a picture to an entry, although of course that could just mean photos that you’ve imported. The article concludes by saying that Apple always meant the iPad to have a camera, but including one proved to be too expensive in the end, so the idea was ditched, at least for the first iteration of the device.

By Maura Sutton, iPadForums.net
[Source: www.telegraph.co.uk]

Check out this incredible e-book version of Alice in Wonderland from Atomic Antelope, which comes complete with all sorts of interactive features that help to make it so much more than a simple e-book. This really is the sort of thing that so many people were getting excited about before the iPad came out – interactive books that totally involve the reader in the story. For example, to make Alice grow big, you must tilt the iPad one way; to shrink her down to just six inches tall, tilt the iPad the other way. Or how about throwing tarts at the Queen of Hearts and watching them bounce off her with realistic physics?!

Each illustration has been digitally restored from Lewis Carroll’s original book, then rendered in full colour, and all illustrations are now fully gravity aware. The app includes 52 pages, 20 of which are animated scenes. As Atomic Antelope themselves say, “Alice for the iPad is the digital pop-up book for a Blade Runner generation.”
Alice for the iPad is available for $8.99 from the iPad App Store, or you can download the Lite version for free.

Video after the jump!
By Maura Sutton, iPadForums.net
[Source: www.pcdworld.com]

As we've discussed on this site plenty of times before (and the Internet has beaten it to death as well) - Apple's decision to require all apps that run on the iPad (and iPhone) be built in Xcode is curious and somewhat ridiculous.

Many chalked it up to Apple wanting control and to make sure that competition (Flash, others) didn't have a chance to really grow on the platforms that Apple controls.... but what if that were not true at all.

What if, Apple really put a different CPU into these newer devices (The A4) and is actually running ARM emulation to be backwards compatible. What if OS4.0 gave Xcode compiled code the ability to run natively on these devices and instantly we saw a 50% speed improvement on these devices.... would that make the sacrifice of being able to code in other frameworks less of a problem?

Before you say this is not really possible, consider what we have taken for granted: The A4 is an ARM based CPU. We don't know this for sure... the die size of the CPU is much larger then it needs to be to support this CPU. In addition, the PA Semi team that apple purchased was actually working on low power PowerPC dual core CPU's.

This article breaks it down in more detail and is a great read for the speculators and conspiracy theorists out there: The Genius in Apple's Vertical Platform - steve's blog

The Associated Press is reporting today that Israel has banned all iPad imports, because officials fear that the iPad’s wireless receivers and transmitters do not comply with national standards and therefore might adversely affect other wireless devices. The ban is comprehensive, meaning that not even tourists are allowed to bring iPads into the country until officials are satisfied that the device complies with local transmitter standards.

According to the report, customs officials in Israel have already confiscated 10 iPads since the ban was announced this week. Nati Schubert, a senior deputy director for the Israeli Communications Ministry was quoted by the AP as giving the following explanation:
“If you operate equipment in a frequency band which is different from the others that operate on that frequency band, then there will be interference. We don’t care where people buy their equipment… but without regulation, you would have chaos.”
Confiscated iPads will be held by customs, and their owners charged a daily fee until they leave the country or send the device back to the US. So basically, the message is, if you’re going to Israel, don’t take your iPad!

By Maura Sutton, iPad Forum
[Source: http://news.yahoo.com]

Last night I noticed that “Cats Love the iPad” had suddenly and mysteriously appeared as one of Twitter’s Top Ten Trending Topics. A little bit of investigation revealed a whole host of cute videos on You Tube of cats getting to grips with their owner’s iPads, with this one of a cat called Iggy probably being the most popular around the web. Check it out, it’s just so cute! And if the thought of a cat’s claws scratching you iPad’s screen up gives you the shivers, well Iggy’s owner says that the screen is fine, and more than able to withstand Iggy’s swipes. Actually I’d be more worried about Iggy knocking that cup of tea or whatever over, as any sort of liquid spill would probably cause a lot more damage that a cat’s claws. Good to see that cats are adapting to new technology too! Check out the video after the jump!

By Maura Sutton, iPad Forum

Following hot on the heels of the announcement that the release of the iPad will be delayed worldwide, The Guardian is reporting that Vodafone, O2 and Orange have all been confirmed today as iPad suppliers in the UK. None of the companies have dropped any hints about pricing yet, with all of them issuing statements with a variation on a theme of offering “dedicated iPad price plans for all models”. The Guardian reports that the mobile phone companies all want to be able to tie their iPad pricing plans in with their current tariffs, so it’s possible that customers with long-term iPhone contracts will be able to get an additional iPad sim card for an extra monthly fee, which could be a great way of tempting new customers over to your network, or preventing your customers from switching when their contract is up for renewal. The fact that there will be three operators all vying for iPad customers in the UK could prove to be a very good thing for the consumer, with some highly competitive packages on the table to tempt us all!

By Maura Sutton, iPad Forum
[Source: www.guardian.co.uk]

Cult of Mac features a fantastic idea for an iPad stand today in the shape of a simple business card holder, which can be picked up for just $0.69 from Office Depot. They got the idea from New York Times Multimedia Editor Andrew DeVigal, who discovered the ‘business-card-holder-as-iPad-stand’ fix almost by accident and posted about it on his Tumblr blog, More Than Tweets. On his Tumblr, DeVigal says that he really wanted a stand that kept his iPad upright in either landscape or portrait, which neither the Keyboard Dock or the iDock do. And, as DeVigal points out, other stands in the Apple Store, such as Griffin’s A-Frame: Tabletop Stand for iPad, will set you back a whopping $49, whereas the Office Depot business card holder does a perfectly adequate job for under a dollar. DeVigal does caution his readers that his makeshift stand can’t be expected to be as durable or as pose able as other more expensive stands, but even if it breaks, you can afford to buy another one at that price!

By Maura Sutton, iPadForums.net
[Source: http://www.cultofmac.com]

The Official Google Mobile Blog has just announced that the Google Mobile App for iPad has been released to the App Store. The blog refers to the new version of the app as “iPad-friendly”, saying that it has been specifically designed to fit the iPad’s screen. According to the blog, the usual Google Mobile App for iPhone features, such as search by voice and My Location, should now work just as well on the iPad as they do on the iPhone. The iPad version of the app is basically the same as the iPhone app, but Google says it’s currently developing the app so that it can take advantage of more of the iPad’s features in future, so we can expect more Google Mobile iPad app updates further down the line. To download the free Google Mobile App to your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch (OS 3.0 or higher), simply search for “Google Mobile App” in the App Store, or go to:
iTunes Store.

By Maura Sutton, iPadForums.net
[Source: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/]

Apple has released a statement delaying the international launch of the Apple iPad until late May. Read the entire press release below:

Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad™. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.

Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.

[Source: Apple.com]