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Apple iPad, the All-Around Device for $499 Base Model, Sweet!

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Alright boys and girls, let’s all welcome Apple’s latest creation – the iPad. I know, it’s a crappy name for an Apple product. Makes you think that the Apple boys seemed to have run out of ideas already to come up with a killer name for a supposedly killer device. But hey, we’re free to call it whatever we want. What matters is what it can do, right?

Frankly, the Apple boys maybe a bit confused as well when it comes to determining what they want the iPad to be. Is it a tablet? Is it an e-book reader? Is it a bigger version of iPod?  Actually, Apple wants the iPad to be a bit of everything.

The iPad is definitely a Tablet, by looks alone. But it lacks the slide-out keyboard common to tablet PCs. But hey, it has a full capacitive multi-touch feature so that more than makes up for the lack of a physical keyboard.

It can handle games. Specifically graphics intensive  games such as the one demoed by EA. It can even do pixel double so that existing games can maximize the 9.7-inch screen since all of these games were developed for the small screen estate of iPhone and iPod touch.

Most interesting function of the Apple iPad of course is the e-book reader part. It can definitely handle e-book reading task. But more importantly, Apple also announced it’s e-book store – iBooks. So, there are now three Apple gadget-specific, online store, iTunes, Apps Store and iBooks. And having an e-book store of its own means a lot for the success of the iPad as an electronic reading device. Fortunately for Apple, they have already made deals with four major publishers – Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, Penguin and MacMillan and Hatchett. The only information left is how much e-books are going to be sold.

Lastly, the part that got me excited? – Pricing. And it goes something like these:

  • $499 for the base 16GB Wi-Fi
  • $599 for the 32GB model Wi-Fi
  • $699 for the 64GB model Wi-Fi
  • $629 for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G
  • $729 for the 32GB Wi-Fi +3G
  • $829 for the 64GB Wi-Fi  +3G

U.S. release date will be late March in the U.S. and selected countries.

And here’s the official Apple announcement for the iPad. Apple Gazette’s technical specs round-up here.

So, are you buying the iPad? I am, most definitely.

Originally posted on January 27, 2010 @ 3:50 pm

Enjoy One More Year of Free Access to New York Times

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Just a quick note to follow-up on the latest development about New York Times plan of introducing a paid model for its online newspaper.  It is now official, NYT will be rolling out the paid-metered model beginning in 2010.

The metered model approach to making its loyal readers pay for their access to the New York Times will give users free access to a set number of articles per month. NYT will start charging users online when they’ve access more than the number of free articles.  According to NYT, this is their way of creating a second revenue stream that will somehow help in preserving the online newspaper. Furthermore, offering the NYT online on a paid subscription basis will also give them the flexibility to keep an appropriate ratio between free and paid content – hence helping them stay connected to the Internet.

To prepare the online NYT, new online infrastructure will be designed.  The good news is,  those who subscribe  to the print NYT will continue to have free access to the online NYT, even when the paid model system is already implemented.

NYT Chairman Arthur Sulzberger expressed confidence that the loyal NYT users would not mind the paid model since it will help the NYT improve on its content.

“Our audiences are very loyal and we believe that our readers will pay for our award-winning digital content and services.”

Pricing and other details about the new paid model will be released in the coming months. In the meantime, you’ge 11 more months of free access to the NYT online, so make the most of it.

 

Originally posted on January 20, 2010 @ 3:40 pm

Motorola Brings the Android MOTOROI Phone to Korea

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Lookie here, Motorola has just brought in the first Android-powered phone ever to hit the Korean market and it goes by the monicker – the MOTOROI. This was made possible through a deal between Motorola and SK Telecom of Korea. While Motorola may have succeeded in becoming the first company to bring an Android smartphone to Koreans, it however faces tough challenge from local Korean mobile phone manufacturers who are also planning to launch their own Android devices.

But first, Motorola will also have to deal first with the iPhone which launched earlier in the Korean markets. Unfortunately for Motorola, the iPhone may have already gained quite a significant part of the Korean mobile market. In fact, it is said that the iPhone might have ignited the Koreans interest for smartphones.

Still, Motorola seemed poised to conquer the Korean mobile market by bringing out the MOTOROI loaded with features that every smartphone savvy will surely love. Apart from the Android OS, the MOTOROI also boasts of a 3.7-inch display, a whooping 8 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and a 720p HD camcorder. This feature becomes the first among Korean mobile phone users.

In addition, the MOTOROI will also have a terrestial digital multimedia broadcasting service which is very popular today in Korea.

Other features of the MOTOROI include 8GB of external memory which can be expanded up to 32GB. And since it is an Android phone, the MOTOROI will have access to thousands of Android apps available at the Android market  including some Korean-language applications.

The MOTOROI is expected to be priced at around $800 when it goes out in Korea sometime in April 2010.

 

Originally posted on January 20, 2010 @ 7:47 am

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Up for Grabs at the iTunes Apps Store

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What a way to start the year but to have one of the most successful game franchise, Grand Theft Auto available for download at the iTunes Apps Store? Yes, GTA fanboys, you read it right – Grand Theft Auto, specifically Chinatown Wars has arrived. It may be costly at $9.99, but hey if you’re a die-hard GTA fan, you won’t mind paying that much for an iPhone app, right? Ok, let me say a great iPhone game.

Touch Arcade is saying that GTA: Chinatown Wars is like the the DS and PSP versions of the game franchise. Since I don’t have a Nintendo DS, I would have to agree that indeed GTA: Chinatown Wars for iPhone is similar to the PSP Grand Theft Auto game.

Chinatown Wars gives you a complete GTA gaming experience. In fact, the game is so good that you won’t actually notice that you are actually playing the game on the diminutive screen of the iPhone. Everything about the game moves and loads fast. The graphics are pretty decent and definitely pushed the iPhone’s boundary to the limit.

Chinatown War’s graphic is pretty impressive.  The screen elements move fast whenever you are driving a car. The storyline is there, the house and garage which serve as your saving point and safehouse in other GTA games are also in Chinatown Wars.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a highly recommended iPhone game. The $10 that you will pay for it is definitely worth all the goodness you’re going to get  while playing it. And did we say, fun as well?

Hit on the iTunes link to get this app from the iTunes Apps Store.

Via

Originally posted on January 18, 2010 @ 11:45 am

Report, More Internet Users are now Conversationalists in Social Networks

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Latest data from Forrester is showing that a new category of Internet users are now comprising 1/3 of the total Internet population.  This group called “conversationalist” are Internet users who post status updates on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, at least once a week. In addition, these conversationalists are mostly female, with 70% of them age 30 years old and above.

The report groups Internet users into the following categories:

Creators – are Internet users who create content either through their own blogs or websites, upload video and audio content as well as write articles and post them online. This group represents 24% of the total Internet population.

Critics – are Internet users who  post product reviews, comment on blogs, participate in online community forums, and contribute to wikis. They represent 37% of the Internet users.

Collectors – are those who tag photos, participate in online voting and use RSS feeds. This group represent 20% of Internet users.

Joiners – those maintain profiles in social networking sites and visit these sites often but don’t really join in the interaction. They represent 59% of the Internet users.

Spectators – comprising 70% of Internet users, this group read blogs, listent o podcasts and consumer online information but don’t really contribute.

Inactives – 17%

Conversationalists – this group is comprised of those who post updates on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter regularly, that is once a week.

The data was based on Forrester’s social technographics whereby social technology behavior were analyzed to construct those social profiles.

An interesting fact about this data that is worth noting is the fact that although more people are joing social networks, the number of those people who create content remains the same. Of course this is understandable since it is easier to maintain social networking profiles as well as participate in the communication compared to maintaing blogs, creating websites, uploading videos and other ways of creating online content.

So, which group of Internet users are you?

 

Originally posted on January 19, 2010 @ 7:05 pm