iPad 2 Upgrade Dilemma

Alright, the iPad 2 is out, and everyone is waiting to grab it. You're not ? Don't lie ! … Hahahaa … Well, friends are asking me, should they upgrade. I have been pondering this question since the iPad 2 was announced last night, and after much though, here's what I think. 

If you already have an iPad, and you also have the iPhone 4, I think you can just keep your iPad and wait for iPad 3. You won't really be missing much. Let's look at the main differences.

1) Performance

The iPad 2 comes with A5 processor with 2X CPU performance, 9X GPU performance compared to the A4 processor in the iPad 1. This is definitely a very significant performance boost. However, you should remember that iPad 1 is already pretty fast, so what can this performance boost do for you ?

• Faster app loading:  So, an app that takes 3 seconds to load, may now take 1.5 sec. Saves you 1.5 sec in load time … nice to have, but not critical. 
• Smoother app experience: You may see things work more smoothly, scroll faster, refresh faster, etc.,  but this will vary from app to app. Most apps that are properly optimized for iOS would already work pretty smoothly on iPad 1.
• Smoother multitasking: The A5 most definitely came with more RAM, so multitasking will definitely be smoother. Another nice to have, but again, is not critical.
• Better gaming graphics: Some game developers may start creating games that takes advantage of the 9x higher graphics performance, but most developers will still make sure their games works well on iPad 1.

The fact is, there are likely in excess of 18 million iPad 1 out there right now, but at the moment, ZERO iPad 2. It will probably be at least many months later before there are more iPad 2 out there than iPad 1. Therefore, all the iPad apps coming out in the next 6-9 months will likely be optimized to run on iPad 1, rather than take advantage of iPad 2 features exclusively. So, any app that works well on iPad 2, will also work well on iPad 1. You're not really gonna be missing anything here in the coming one year. 

2) Cameras

The iPad 2 has cameras for FaceTime, which you would already have on the iPhone 4, so you won't really be missing anything here.

3) Lighter and thinner

No doubt, it's great that iPad 2 is about 5mm thinner, and around 80 grams lighter (comparing Wifi models, 3g models have slightly bigger weight difference) … but it isn't earth shattering difference. 

4) Miscellaous

The smart cover is really cool, no denying that. The HDMI mirroring on iPad 2 could be a nice feature for people who do presentations. 

Conclusion

Taking into consideration everything, I believe if you have both the iPad and iPhone 4, you are probably better off just sticking to your current iPad, and upgrade only when iPad 3 comes out. The iPad 2 is a nice upgrade, but not essential. Unless of course, you have a lot of excess cash that you're waiting to spend, in which case, would you like to buy me an iPad 2 ? Hehehe ...

iMovie for iPhone - Crash Course

A quick introduction on how to use iMovie to edit cool videos on your iPhone itself =) ... It really is amazingly simple and fast. After watching this short video, you will become an expert in editing videos on your iPhone =) ...

I really love iMovie's ability to live preview things, without having to wait for it to render/encode, every time you make changes.




Here's a sample video I made using iMovie on iPhone:

Get Paid iPhone/iPad Games/Apps for FREE

Want paid apps/games for free ? I have good news for you =) ... and it doesn't need jailbreaking ...

Many of you reading this probably just gotten yourself a spanking new iPhone 4 and wanna get lots of cool games and apps.

Sure, there are tons and tons of free apps in the AppStore already, but we all know that free apps are more often than not, quite crappy, compared to the paid apps. The reason is simply because, for paid apps, developers have a *commitment* to deliver quality since they are paid by customers, and competition for customers is intense in the AppStore, with over 300k apps.

It is also because of the intense competition, that developers resort to giving away their *paid* apps for free from time to time, in order to promote their apps, and to push their apps up in the iTunes AppStore rankings. That's great news for us, since we can get higher quality paid apps, not lite versions, for FREE !

So, here's how to easily find these paid apps that are on free promo.

1) Download AppShopper app from the AppStore, it's free:

     http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appshopper/id387037496?mt=8

2) Run AppShopper

3) Just below the toolbar on top, you can see 3 column headers. The first 

     one allows you to show All categories of apps, or just specific type of 

     apps. If you want just games, select GAMES.

     Second column header should be set to FREE. Third column header, set

     it to PRICE CHANGES.

That's it. Now you see a list of all the latest paid apps that are on free promo. Pulling down the list, you can refresh the list to get the latest updates. Do check daily for tons of free offers.

I normally only try out the apps rated 2.5 stars or more, or unless the screenshots looks really cool. Since there are so many to choose from, I just ignore apps with low ratings.

Here are a few other free apps you should also install. They provide new paid apps on free promos daily, so check regularly.

OpenFeint Game Spotlight:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/openfeint-game-spotlight/id349406668?mt=8

The FAAD Gold App by FreeAppADay.com:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-faad-gold-app-by-freeappaday/id384098380?mt=8

Latest Apple News

The iPad Will Rule the World
"Make the screen five inches by eight inches, and you'll rule the world." That's what Alan Kay said when Steve Jobs asked him about his thoughts on the iPhone. Alan Kay is one the greatest minds in the history of computing. He worked in the 70s at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he said that "the best way to predict the future is to invent it!" He did precisely that.
Click here to read this article.

Apple iPad demand exceeding pre-launch iPhone buzz?
A new survey has found that 13 percent of respondents are likely to buy Apple's forthcoming iPad, a number greater than the 9 percent who planned to purchase an iPhone before its launch in 2007.
Click here to read this article.

Apple ranks third in customer service survey
In its bronze medal position, Apple earned A+ ratings in both the qualify of staff and efficiency of service; its overall score increased by almost ten percent over its 2009 rating. ... Apple was 20 places above its nearest competitor, Dell ...
Click here to read this article.

Report gives Apple top honors for reliability
Apple is selling more Macs than ever these days. And according to a survey from a computer support company, those new customers are enjoying some very reliable machines. On Monday, Rescuecom released its 2010 computer reliability report, with Apple winning the top spot in the survey.
Click here to read this article.

Aerial Footage of Apple’s New Massive Data Center
Experts note that Apple’s data center will be among the largest in the world, rivaling centers run by internet giants like Microsoft and Google. The unusual size of the data center suggests that Apple is investing heavily in cloud computing.
Click here to read this article.

New iPhone Ad: On Hold


New iPhone Ad: First Steps


New iPhone Ad: Family Travel

Flash Is Fundamentally Flawed On Touch Screen Devices

A Flash developer offers a good explanation on why Flash would not work well on touch screen devices like the iPad:

"I’m a full-time Flash developer and I’d love to get paid to make Flash sites for iPad. I want that to make sense—but it doesn’t. Flash on the iPad will not (and should not) happen—and the main reason, as I see it, is one that never gets talked about: Current Flash sites could never be made work well on any touchscreen device, and this cannot be solved by Apple, Adobe, or magical new hardware. That’s not because of slow mobile performance, battery drain or crashes. It’s because of the hover or mouseover problem. ... All that Apple and Adobe could ever do is make current Flash content visible. It would be seen, but very often would not work."

Click here to read the article.

And here's my take on this ...

More than just hover/mouseover problem, there are many other issues I see here. Flash is fundamentally based on a single pointer, while multitouch devices can allow many touch points at any one time.

So how is flash going to interpret moving your finger over it ? Is it a hover,  drag or scroll ? When you touch the screen, is that hovering or a click ? What about when you touch with 2 or 3 fingers ? Is that like having 2 or 3 mouse cursors at the same time ? If you touch two different buttons on a flash app at the same time, what happens ?

Is there a workaround for this ? Probably, but it will require most Flash sites to be redesigned. And even then, it would not provide the best possible user experience because Flash does not fundamentally support multitouch gestures.

Some are arguing that Apple should just support Flash anyway, even if half of the Flash sites out there would not work properly. Well, one must remember that to Apple, user experience is the most important part of their product design. When users start browsing around and find that many websites don't work properly because it uses Flash, that's just bad user experience. They are not going to care why it doesn't work. As far as they are concerned, it's a problem with Apple's product, even though the problem is caused by Adobe's Flash plugin.

By excluding Flash altogether, Apple is putting the pressure on web designers to redesign their websites for the iPhone and the upcoming iPad. Even now, if you use your iPhone to browse the majority of the popular websites, you will find that they have an iPhone optimised version of their site. In fact, there are many sites with special iPhone apps that makes it even easier to access the site's contents (e.g. Wired, Engadget, etc). So, not having Flash really isn't a big deal.

I should also come clean and tell you now that I personally hate Flash. If you have ever tried to open a website and your computer grinds to a halt, it's likely due to Flash. I have personally encountered this soooooo many times both on Windows and Mac. If they can't even get Flash to work flawlessly on a full blown computer, what makes you think they can get it to work well on a mobile device that has a significantly slower CPU ?

Update: Apparently, the latest Flash plugin 10.1 beta adds multitouch support, but this does not change the fact that all the flash content currently out there needs to be redesigned in order to take advantage of this. And this brings us back to the problem of not all websites working properly ...

Interesting iPad Articles

Here are some of the interesting things that I found on the net about the iPad :) ...

Wired magazine is leading the change in the e-magazine industry and will have their new digital version out this summer for the iPad. It looks fantastic ... I certainly hope all magazines becomes like this :)




If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good
Paul Buchheit, the creator of Gmail, wrote an interesting article about the iPad ... "If your product needs "everything" in order to be good, then it's probably not very innovative (though it might be a nice upgrade to an existing product). Put another way, if your product is great, it doesn't need to be good." Click here to read this article.

The iPad's secret sauce: it's the software, stupid
"The thing is, tablet PCs running regular software like Windows and Office have never offered any benefit over regular PCs with a keyboard and mouse. In fact, they offer a worse user experience. ... Put another way: the iPad is all about software. Forget the sleek form factor – that's just a prerequisite. Ironically, it's the software and services that Microsoft never 'got', that Apple totally does get." Click here to read this article.

Radical Innovation of Meaning - Apple iPad
"No, what Apple does well is put forth "radical innovations of meaning". That term is from Roberto Verganti, who wrote about the concept in his excellent book "Design-Driven Innovation". Apple's skills with design-driven innovation are what will make the iPad a success."  Click here to read this article.

Inside Apple's iPad: Multitasking
"Another problem relates to security. If apps aren't simply terminated by the user in a straightforward way as they are on the iPhone OS, users may not be aware they are still running. Background apps might provide a valuable service, but without any restrictions, they're also able to install spyware, viruses and other malicious software. That's simply not possible to do on the iPhone OS." Click here to read this article.

Inside Apple's iPad: Adobe Flash
"Adobe's arguments for Flash are difficult to support in the mobile realm. The iPhone has been wildly popular since its debut despite its lack of support for Flash. Apple's smartphone dramatically raised the bar for what customers expected in a mobile web browser. By doing this without Flash, Apple essentially redefined what the web should look like, at least on a mobile device." Click here to read this article.

Thunderous Boom in a Perfect Storm of iPad Apps
"According to Flurry's analytical app-developer tracking skills, January saw the single biggest peak in developer activity ever registered in its system. It's the iPad." Click here to read this article.

Why the iPad is Intel’s worst nightmare
"The iPad is close to Intel’s worst nightmare because it’s a ‘proper’ computer - it’s certainly not a smartphone - that doesn’t use an Intel x86 CPU. It’s also a machine that doesn’t face any of the demand-killing limitations non Intel laptops have done before. It’s not from a no-name company that people won’t trust, or whose products you can’t actually find in the shops. It’s not running Linux or an OS that’s difficult to understand. It’s not unfamiliar – millions of people know how to use the iPhone – and once the Apple marketing juggernaut gets up and running, you’re not going to be unaware it exists." Click here to read this article.

IBM Eyes The iPad
"Rennie says IBM will also design applications targeted specifically at the iPad, which it hopes to release "very close to the delivery date" of the device. "The screen real estate and the touch interface should give us the opportunity to do some very interesting things," he says." Click here to read this article.

Why iPhone Apps Rule !

It should come as no surprise to Apple fans that there are now over 150,000 apps for iPhoneOS, which runs on the 80 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices that are already out there.

There are some however, who questions the need to have that many apps. They ask, do we really need 100 different twitter apps ? 100 different calculators ? 100 different messaging apps ?

I will tell you now that the answer is a big YES! And I shall discuss the various reasons below.

Reason 1 - Competition
When you have 100 different companies making a particular type of app, it means there is very strong competition. In order for their app to stand out above the others, their app must be better, more innovative, more user friendly and better priced. They have to keep making their app better and release improved updates more frequently in order to survive and stay ahead of the competition.

The result from this is that you will get far better apps at a cheaper price on the iPhone than any other mobile devices out there.

Reason 2 - Everyone Is Different
Everyone is different, and have different preferences and needs, even when doing essentially the same thing. Some companies may choose to make their app the most user friendly for newbies, while others might makes theirs the most full featured for power users. So, when you have many choices of apps to choose from, you can pick the one that works best for *YOU*.

The result from this is that you get apps that best suited to you, rather than you having to force yourself to change to suit the app.

Reason 3 - Highly Specialised Apps
There are now over 100,000 iPhoneOS developers/companies. Because of the intense competition, many developers are forced to find more niche markets or specialised tasks to create apps for. Examples for this are the many apps just for doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, etc.

The result from this is that you can get very specialised apps that you would not be able to find on any other mobile platform.

Reason 4 - Sustains the Momentum
The availability of so many apps helps to push even more people to buy iPhones and iPod Touch, which helps expand the market for these apps, and that in turn, pushes developers to create even more apps.

The result from this is that iPhone, iPod Touch and the upcoming iPad will be manufactured in increasing greater numbers, and this will result in greater economies of scale, which will eventually drive down the price of these devices, as well as the apps.

Conclusion
Regardless of whether or not you actually need so many apps, you will still benefit more from buying iPhoneOS devices as opposed to other competing smartphones.