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Angry Birds players tend to skew Republican, while Words with Friends players tend to make more money.

That's according to a recent study by JumpTap, which provides targeted mobile advertising and collects trending data.

Another finding: the new iPad has exceeded sales expectations, even if its traffic levels are lower than prior versions of Apple's hit tablet.

The results -- particularly from the mobile games -- provide some interesting insight into the patterns and preferences of players. Words with Friends players are more likely to have an annual income over $100,000 and tend to use smartphones. Angry … Read more

A few months ago, I bought a Kindle. The cheap kind: $79, with "Special Offers." I bought it because I wanted to read more efficiently, and because the iPad 2's screen was giving me eye fatigue.

You'd think that with the new Retina Display iPad that my Kindle had been one-upped. Clearer, crisper text is exactly what I was hoping for on an iPad, and it did indeed come to pass. I upgraded to a third-generation iPad, although I did it mainly for storage space and to explore gaming with the new A5X graphics.

Yet, the new iPad hasn't been able to unseat my little old Kindle. Not entirely. In fact, I've been surprised to find that the Kindle has carved out a special place in my heart, and it's one that the iPad has a hard time filling.… Read more

The new iPad's glass screen is tough and scratch-resistant, but a lot of people still choose to buy a screen protector to be safe and potentially help cut down on glare.

The truth is, I don't know how necessary screen protectors really are, and many don't help with glare quite as much as they promise. "Film" protectors can be a challenge for many people to install and "bubble-free" protectors can reduce the crispness of the new iPad's Retina Display.… Read more

The latest iPad has a new fan, namely Consumer Reports.

Apple's latest tablet scored the highest ratings among its rivals in a report out today from the consumer publication.

The new iPad was commended for its 5-megapixel camera, battery life, and 4G coverage through Verizon Wireless. But it was the high-resolution screen that earned the sharpest praise.

Citing the detail and color accuracy of the Retina Display, Consumer Reports said that the screen "establishes a new benchmark in excellence" and is "the best we've seen" on a tablet. Specifically, the publication found that the … Read more

At this point in the performance narrative of i...Things, I've gotten accustomed to each new iteration of the iPad or iPhone being demonstrably faster than the last. I'm not talking strictly about frame rates in games either. App load times, movie encoding, and app download speeds are all things that seem to noticeably improve with each new iOS device.

However, with the announcement that the new iPad's A5X processor would only see an upgrade in its graphical capabilities over the A5, I have to admit to being more than a bit disappointed.… Read more

Your mind goes on a roller-coaster ride of shock and hope when you drop a tablet on a hard surface. Trust me. Hey, I even feel mental pain when I watch this video showing some spine-tingling (and senseless) iPad sacrifice.

In the vid, the new iPad and iPad 2 face off in a series of waist- and shoulder-high drop tests captured on video in a PR stunt by consumer electronics warranty company SquareTrade. The unscientific experiment features a group of curiously smiling people dropping iPads face down and face up on hard concrete. … Read more

Mark Licea resurfaces today after a half-year absence from the show, but he can't miss out on our revolt against Michael Bay for tearing apart another memory from our childhood.

Over the weekend, the director announced that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in his upcoming reboot will come from space instead of a green canister of toxic ooze.… Read more

Heat has come up as an issue with previous generations of iPads. So, that's not news. But the new iPad may have, in select cases, its own unique heat problems.

User forum postings (here and here) and a report seem to point to heat as an issue for select users.

The problem area--based on forum links above--seems to be a hot-spot in the corner of the unit.

In the worst case, the iPad shuts down and a message pops up, saying "the iPad needs to cool down," according to a Next Web report (link above).

That seems … Read more

Visits to two Apple stores on Friday confirmed my Apple Shiny Slab Theory. That is, some consumers, deep down, don't really know why they buy the newest Apple thing.

After attending a meeting in Hollywood on Friday, I stopped by an Apple store down the street in Century City (aka, Beverly Hills) and another in Santa Monica. I estimate I spent more than two hours total in those two stores.

My intention was not only to try to gauge the level of interest in the new iPad but also to form (I hoped) a bulletproof rationale for upgrading from … Read more