iPad

How to make playlists on your iPad

The iPad's music player is one of those under-appreciated features that gets lost in the daily frenzy of new games and third-party apps. It stands on an odd, yet awesome, middle ground between the full version of iTunes, and the finger-flicking fun of the iPhone/iPod Touch music player.

Some aspects of the iPad's music player are a little quirky, such as the hidden song shuffle. Other features are long overdue, including the ability to manually create and edit multiple playlists directly on the device.

Sure, iPod and iPhone owners have been able to tinker with a prescribed &… Read more

The e-Harmony for Apple fanboys (and girls)

I have heard Apple described as a cult, though I fail to see the resemblance between Steve Jobs and David Koresh. I have heard those who are not part of the Apple fold rail (sometimes quite loudly) against its power, its beauty, its uncritical worship of style without, um, flash.

Now, some clever people, perhaps mining the more positive aspects of eugenics, have created a site where Apple fanboys and girls can meet, love, and perhaps even procreate, knowing they have something powerful that binds them together.

Can love for a brand lead to a wedding band? Cupidtino (and what a lovely name that is), wants to find out. It exists so that you, the Apple fanboy or girl, can meet one of your own kind.

Need I even mention that this forward-thinking enterprise has been created by those who adore everything Apple for those who adore everything Apple? Yes, it is to launch next month and be exclusively available through Safari and iPhone and iPad apps. Would you have imagined anything else?

Cupidtino's creators (two developers and a designer with backgrounds at Yahoo and--gasp--Google and Microsoft) are very clear about the gaping market gap they see before them. "Diehard Mac and Apple fans often have a lot in common--personalities, creative professions, a similar sense of style and aesthetics, taste, and of course a love for technology," says the Web site.

But of course they're referring to just any ordinary technology. The site claims, "We believe these are enough reasons for two people to meet and fall in love, and so we created the first Mac-inspired dating site to help you find other Machearts around you."… Read more

iPad can double as skateboard

The iPad just got a whole lot more intriguing. The tablet can not only help you surf around the Web and check e-mail, it can also serve as a pretty useful skateboard.

Jeff King, who hosts the Fuel TV show "Built to Shred," took a 64GB iPad and, using some innovative techniques, transformed Apple's tablet into a fully operational skateboard. King asked professional skateboarder Chad Knight to try to ride it down a half-pipe.

After attaching wheels to the iPad, Knight took it for a ride. Unfortunately, the iPad's screen cracked in the first try and … Read more

Space Station: Frontier for iPad is hard to put down

I check the iPad apps lists every day in the hope to uncover new gems. Though the frequency of apps coming into the app store is probably better described as a trickle rather than a flood, there's already been a few keepers that I've spent a lot of time with. One new addition to my iPad is a strategy game like no other I've seen so far and I think it has just the right elements to keep strategy gaming fans coming back for more.

Space Station: Frontier HD ($4.99) takes elements from tower-defense-type games and … Read more

The 404 573: Where seriously, whose iPhone 4G prototype is this? (podcast)

We're all wondering what's going on with the story of the Apple iPhone 4G prototype found in a Redwood City, Calif., bar and its subsequent sale to Gizmodo. CNET News Senior Writer Greg Sandoval drops by the studio to fill us in on all the latest developments, including who exactly found the phone, how it eventually got into the hands of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, and why it's never a good idea to purchase anything you know for a fact is stolen! Unfortunately, "finders keepers, losers weepers" only holds water on the playground.

Wired published an article last week outing Brian J. Hogan as the person who found and sold the iPhone prototype to Gizmodo, but CNET also learned that he had help finding a buyer for the device from Sage Wallower, a UC Berkeley student who attended Santa Barbara City College with Hogan.

The investigation is still ongoing (San Mateo County police still have Chen's computers), but Greg tells us felony criminal charges are still a very serious possibility since a California law specifically states that "any person who knowingly receives property that has been obtained illegally can be imprisoned for up to one year."

We also have a collection of silly stories to even out the show in the second half, including a very discomforting story about an unlikely pairing between a 59-year-old Chinese man and a 20-inch long eel. We can't go into much detail, but there's a very important lesson to take away from it all, and that is to never, ever pass out in front of your friends.

Finally, Roger Ebert has written an open letter to the public decrying the concept of 3D movies as a way of life. His points are direct and address many of the issues we've already discussed with David Katzmaier, senior editor of TVs and home theater for CNET.

Ebert claims that the 3D element, even in popular movies like "Avatar," add nothing essential to the moviegoing experience. It also doesn't help that these movies often cause nausea and headaches for people who just want to be entertained for two hours, not to mention the inflated surcharges that theaters tack onto already expensive tickets. Listen in to hear our take on the future of 3D movies and home theater.

Big thanks to Greg for taking time out of his schedule to join us on today's show. If you have a question for us or simply want to comment on the show, give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET or e-mail the404(at)cnet(dot)com. Thanks for listening!

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Attention, readers: Send us your DIY goodness!

Here at Crave, we're giant fans of do-it-yourself projects, and we feature them a lot on these pages because we love the smell of solder and the look of grease stains (even if some of our significant others don't). We've seen some pretty awesome stuff made by regular people to fill needs other products don't--or just because making one's own wacky contraptions is plain fun (robot flower girl, we're talking about you).

We've covered DIY creations including a homemade Lamborghini, automated knock-detecting door lock, snow chopper made from junk, mind-controlled spybot, biometric bridal bouquet, … Read more

No physical home address, no iPad 3G!

Last Friday numerous eager to-be iPad owners lined up around Apple Stores to await the release of the 3G version, but some of these people have found a problem when trying to activate their 3G data plans on the devices. When they enter their P.O. box addresses as a billing address for their credit cards, the registration process refuses to continue, claiming an invalid address.… Read more

Microwaved iPad 3G becomes strangely appetizing

When people like this do things like this they register their occupation, on registering their new gizmo, as "other."

What could be more accurate. Each time someone takes a new Apple product and, you know, smashes it, destroys it, or mutilates it, one cannot help but admire the ingenuity that has gone in to such a pursuit. Ingenuity that could have otherwise been put to use in, oh, perhaps an episode of "Mythbusters."

Still, this is modern art. If anything is.

You see, the creators of this video, in which they microwave the new iPad 3G, … Read more

Digital City 80: Turning a WiFi iPad into an iPad 3G; the death of HP's Win 7 slate

This week we start by discussing the big car bomb scare in Times Square, and how our purportedly high-tech surveillance-heavy society isn't as high-tech as TV shows like 24 would have us believe.

There's still no confirmation, but after the HP/Palm deal was announced, the first thing we heard was the Win7 version of HP's upcoming tablet is on thin ice -- we examine the clues.

The iPad 3G is the other big story of the week. Dan and Scott checked out a couple of launch events last Friday, and we'll also show you how … Read more

How to turn your Wi-Fi iPad into an iPad 3G

Maybe you're one of those people who couldn't wait for the 3G version of Apple's iPad and instead had to run out and get the Wi-Fi version right away. We mainly think of the iPad as a living room/kitchen device, but with the warmer weather arriving you might be feeling a bit of 3G envy, seeing newly minted iPad 3G owners soaking up the sun in their local parks and coffee shops while tapping, swiping, and pinching away.

The typical solution for getting a go-anywhere 3G signal on a Wi-Fi-only device such as a laptop or Netbook has traditionally been a 3G USB key--but, of course, lacking a USB port or a way to install the required software, we can't use our 3G USB key on the iPad. Smartphone tethering would work also, but if you have an iPad, there's a good chance you've also got an iPhone, so no tethering for you unless you jailbreak your phone.

The solution is a device we've talked about several times before, the Novatel MiFi, a portable wireless router that takes the 3G signal it receives and broadcasts it as a Wi-Fi signal. We've previously reviewed versions of the Novatel hardware from Verizon and Sprint (and the infamous Technobeaver has weighed in on the MiFi as well).

Hooking the MiFi up to our non-3G iPad was easy. We powered on the MiFi box, and its signal was immediately recognized by the iPad, and listed in the Network Settings submenu, along with all the other Wi-Fi signals in the area. Selecting the MiFi connection, we were prompted to enter a password (as one would do for any secure Wi-Fi connection); the password is a string of numbers printed on a sticker on the bottom of the MiFi unit itself. Up to five devices can connect at once, and the device's range is about 30 feet. … Read more