ipad

Confirming a report from All Things Digital earlier this week, Apple this morning invited the tech press to an iPad-related event on March 2.

Rumors have swirled for months about a pending iPad 2 announcement (recent stories suggested a delay until June). While Apple has not explicitly confirmed that the iPad 2 will be unveiled at this event, nor when the device would be available, an announcement next week would come roughly a year after the company released the original iPad. Also, Apple is not in the habit of announcing updates to existing products far in advance.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Windows Phone 7 is scheduled for its first update since the mobile operating system launched last fall

The iPad 2 may not launch until June and may have some kind of smart bezel

The next generation of MacBook Pros may have a new wireless connection technology

Apple may be working on a television product other than the Apple TV

Toyota is going to start selling hybrid car chargers in 2012

Former Senator Chris Dodd may soon be named chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America

Twitter shut down third-party Twitter clients for … Read more

Several months ago I set up a Google alert for my book, "Knife Music," to keep abreast of anything anybody was saying--good or bad--about the thing. Over the months I've received news of the occasional blog post and tweets, but more recently I popped open an alert to learn that my book was being pirated--both as a separate file and part of two larger Torrents called 2,500 Retail Quality Ebooks (iPod, iPad, Nook, Sony Reader) and 2,500 Retail Quality Ebooks for Kindle (MOBI).

I had the strange reaction of being both dismayed and weirdly honored … Read more

We've been hearing a lot recently about all the upcoming tablets taking on the iPad. Whether it's the Motorola Xoom and its Android Honeycomb OS, the HP TouchPad, or RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, the sharks are circling, and they all want a bite of Apple.

For the most part, the latest, greatest tablets are luring customers with dual-core processors, HDMI output, Adobe Flash support, memory expansion, video chat, HD camcorders, and 4G wireless connections. The specs are impressive, and some of them (such as Flash support) won't likely find their way onto the second generation of the … Read more

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives a few details on the State Department's plans to ensure a global freedom for the Internet

The Obama administration's proposed 2012 budget would increase budget for national cybersecurity and research

LeapFrog unveils the LeapPad Explorer, a tablet for children, due out this summer

Apple announces its subscription policies for its App Store

A new report from KSE Partners shows that taxes on wireless services are higher than ever and vary quite a bit state to state

Logitech updates its LifeSize Video Center program … Read more

Funny how rumors get started.

The blogosphere was buzzing yesterday with rumors that an iPad 3 might be on the way in September. That's right, the iPad 2 hasn't officially been announced (though it is reported to be in production), and already people are talking about an iPad 3.

It all started with a blog post by John Gruber, who writes the popular Daring Fireball blog. In discussing Hewlett-Packard's launch of its iPad competitor, a WebOS tablet called the TouchPad that's scheduled to arrive this summer, Gruber wrote: "Summer feels like a long time away. … Read more

The other day I downloaded Pik Pok's Flick Kick Field Goal Kickoff for the iPad. The description said something about it being a "free app of the day," so I thought I was getting a paid app for free.

Low and behold, after about 5 minutes of playing the game, a time out was called on the field, and a somewhat surreal video popped up on the screen advertising the Swiffer floor-cleaning system, complete with women in mud suits and Heart's "What About Love" playing in the background. (see the full ad here).

The … Read more

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

HP WebOS event

New Nokia CEO's blunt memo

iPad 2 already in production?

Verizon to improve voice quality over 4G

NYU professor camera experiment not going so well

Google Translate for iPhone

Ever since Steve Jobs pulled out a MacBook Air from a manila envelope at a Macworld keynote address in 2008, a few accessory makers have been inspired to design leather manila envelope cases for the Air. Well, we noticed that a company called Maclove has gone a step further and designed a whole line of "Messager" leather manila cases for Mac products.

We had a little trouble finding Messager cases for sale online, but the iPad version appears to cost about $50 (shipping not included). If this style suits your fancy, Amazon does have a number of manila-style … Read more