ipads

Rumored Acer laptop: Ultra-thin, keyboardless

The minds at Acer think your laptop is too thick, so they're reportedly working on a couple of things to make future laptops thinner. And I mean thin. Victoria Beckham thin. Sandra Bullock's chances of winning an Oscar thin.

The company is thought to be going about this size reduction in two ways. First, the speculatastic notebooks would do away with that pesky plastic around and behind the LCD screen, according to DigiTimes. Instead, the screens would be made with a new type of reinforced glass with no need of a casing, trimming a little more than one-third … Read more

HP mimics, mocks iPad with Slate demo video

While we still don't know when Hewlett-Packard's Slate will be for sale, thanks to two new videos, we certainly know more about how HP feels about Apple.

Just hours after Apple revealed the first iPad commercial, HP has followed with a pair of video demos showing off its own touch-screen tablet, the Slate.

The first video, embedded below, feels remarkably similar to Apple's own ad, just sped up and with backing music that's a little harder-edged than Apple's usual choice of cutesy indie pop. Like the iPad as well as iPhone and iPod Touch ads, the demo features just the screen and a pair of hands swiping and pressing the Slate's screen. The similarity between the demo videos of the two competing devices is made easier considering that the iPad and the Slate also look a lot alike. Check out the video, and you can judge for yourself:

… Read more

CNET TV Apple Byte: When Steve says no Flash, the world listens

In this edition of CNET TV's Apple Byte, Brian Tong discusses Apple's recent lawsuit against mobile handset maker HTC for patent violations, Virgin America loses Flash in favor of a more universal, iPhone-friendly website, and the iPad gets an official release date.

Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums. Do you have questions, issues, or stories you would like to see on MacFixIt? Email Us.

iPad ad launches during the Oscars--predictable?

Why would Apple launch its iPad campaign March 15, as was rumored by some, when it could launch during the Oscars? This is Apple, not Snapple.

It seemed so necessary the iPad would receive its official TV push as other glamorous objects of adoration displayed their wares.

What is remarkable about the ad is that there is nothing remarkable about it at all. It is very neat, but very standard communication from Apple.

Yes, there is the music: "There Goes My Love" by Danish band The Blue Van, a tune that will soon be downloaded quite often on … Read more

Apple A4 chip, iPad vs. the competition

As the Apple iPad and its A4 chip get ready to ship on April 3, the competition is not standing still--and, by all appearances, there's plenty of it.

As reported back in January, the A4's central processing unit, or CPU, design, as it stands now, is thought to be based primarily on technology from U.K.-based ARM. Linley Gwennap, who is the president and principal analyst of The Linley Group, believes the A4 uses a fairly common ARM CPU designed by Intrinsity and manufactured by Samsung.

Where Apple, instead, may have chosen to enhance the A4's … Read more

Steve Jobs, iPad customer service representative?

I want to believe this story--if only because customer service is such a lamentable part of commercial life these days.

Admittedly, this is a tough story to confirm or refute. But the Apple chasers at 9to5Mac, who seem more like 24-7Mac to me, write that no less a customer satisfaction expert than Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been answering iPad customer queries.

Oh, alright, apparently he did it once.

The story goes that a Swedish man called Jezper wrote to Apple and asked a very important question: "I'll keep it short. I'm Jezper from Sweden, a long … Read more

Remote computer access and 2D car racing: iPhone apps of the week

The big news of the day is the announcement of when Apple's latest creation, the iPad, will be available. According to Apple, the "magical and revolutionary" product will be in stores April 3 starting at $499, but you can preorder the device as early as March 12. Only the Wi-Fi model will be available at first, with the Wi-Fi/3G capable iPad to come later in April.

There is already plenty of analysis all over the Web about who will buy the iPad and whether it's truly a viable alternative to laptops and Netbooks. Most reviewers … Read more

First shots we've spotted of an iPad game

Secret Exit, maker of the popular and very odd iPhone game Zen Bound, announced Friday that not only is it porting the title to the iPad, but it's enhancing the game for the new hardware and including new levels and controls.

Zen Bound 2 is being billed as "both a sequel and a revision" to the original, which sounds interesting. Rebooting games for the iPad seems like a no-brainer for iPhone game developers, and Apple has said that it expects many developers to create updated versions of their games to take advantage of the tablet's larger … Read more

Is the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t an iPad-killer?

Sorry for the blunt headline, but the question immediately came to mind when reviewing the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t, a new capacitive touch-screen convertible Netbook tablet that's now available for purchase. We found its design appealing back at CES 2010, and were wondering whether Netbooks such as these could evolve to be a legitimate solution to those otherwise looking for devices like an iPad.

The connecting points are all too obvious: both have 10-inch screens, or near enough. Both have multitouch capacitive input. Most importantly, the Apple iPad's price starts at $499, and depending on where you purchase the … Read more