ipads

Well, it's officially almost official. According to a ramp up of very specific recent rumors, Apple is set to send out invites to an iPad Mini event next week, with an unveiling the week after. We have a Humiliation Day bet riding on whether an iPad Mini will come out this year. Emily has staked her dignity on a debbie-downer "No" -- will she have to find a duck suit to wear, or will Karyne play her trusty ukulele in an embarrassing spectacle? Seems like we'll be finding out on October 17.

Also this week, Web-shopping … Read more

We take for granted that Steve Jobs was ahead of his time. A new recording from 1983 suggests just how far ahead he was.

Blogger Marcel Brown posted audio to his Life, Liberty and Technology site today of Steve Jobs' full speech from the International Design Conference in Aspen, Colo. Though the main portion of this talk had surfaced in August, the new recording contains an extended Q&A featuring Jobs' thoughts on networking, voice recognition, and even "an incredibly great computer in a book that you can carry around with you" that sounds a lot like the iPad that Apple would release 27 years later.… Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Apple's iOS 6 has not fared well with Wi-Fi.

Though this isn't the first time a new Apple operating system or device has had Wi-Fi issues, the situation this time around has been exacerbated by the release of the iPhone 5, putting an iOS 6 device immediately into millions of consumers' hands.

Not to mention all of the upgrades. Reports cite 60 percent of iPhone and roughly 40 percent of iPad owners upgrading to the new OS so far.

The fallout is numerous forum discussions on Wi-Fi connectivity problems. For example, there are currently two major … Read more

The story goes that one of the world's greatest geniuses had a slightly different shaped brain than mere mortals. Now anyone can verify the tale for themselves with a new iPad app.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago launched an interactive app today that has about 350 scanned and digitized slides of Albert Einstein's brain, according to the Associated Press. The goal of the app is to give scientists, students, and anyone else who is curious the opportunity to see into the inner workings of the genius's brain.

"I can't wait to find … Read more

As chatter continues about the possibility of Apple's iPad Mini, Taiwan's Economic Daily News wrote today that much of the device's production is said to be done by the assembler Pegatron rather than Foxconn, suggesting that the device is already in production or just about to be.

Engadget picked up this information, saying the Taiwanese paper reported that Pegatron scored 50 percent to 60 percent of production orders on the iPad Mini. Up until now, Foxconn was the only iPad assembler Apple used. The Economic Daily News also wrote that between the two manufacturers, up to 5 … Read more

Apple take note. An Intel executive says everything is going the way of touch.

"Intel has put its money where its conviction is" and invested heavily in touch screens, Rob DeLine, director of Ultrabook product marketing at Intel, said in an interview.

DeLine pointed out that although there are plenty of touch screens that are 10 inches and smaller avaialable, that isn't the case for larger sizes.

The larger-screen ecosystem "really didn't exist," he said. "The ecosystem for 10-inch and below for tablets is pretty mature. So, we've made investments to ensure … Read more

American Airlines will be the first commercial carrier to have all of its pilots replace their paper-based reference flying manuals with Apple's iPad.

The airline announced today that it received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to "to use the Apple iPad in the cockpit during all phases of flight."

All pilots fly with a kitbag that contains necessary flight information, navigation charts, and reference materials for when they're in the air. American is dubbing its new kitbag with the iPad an "Electronic Flight Bag." Switching from paper manuals to the iPad will save … Read more

Editors' note, October 16, 2012: Updated after the release of Apple's October 23 invite.

There have been rumors of a smaller, 7-inch iPad since...well, since there was an iPad. The iPad Mini, as it's being called lately, initially seemed to some like a silly idea: why would you need a smaller iPad? It's actually a logical idea: make an iPad even more portable and more affordable than before. The only question is, when would such a product finally exist?

Now that Apple's sent invites for its next event, the iPad Mini seems to have become a very real product, yet we still know very little about it. Here are our best guesses.… Read more

The biggest game changer from Amazon's Kindle Fire announcement yesterday wasn't the pricing, dual WiFi antennas or Dolby Digital Plus sound. Rather, it was that Amazon became the first major tablet maker to allow different people to have their own accounts on the same device.

Think how commonplace this is for traditional personal computers. Mac or Windows, both platforms allow multiple people to use the same machine, logging in with different accounts that are linked to their own settings, data, applications and perhaps even special restrictions. But for tablets, it's been the dark ages.

I've found … Read more