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In this episode, we talk about ideas for a new iPhone.

[04.3 MB] [00:13:10] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner] [Subscribe]

Yesterday Steve Jobs unveiled iPad, the hotly-anticipated tablet computer which is modeled as savior of the media and publishing industries. It’s supposed to be the Kindle, but better. It’s supposed to save Rolling Stone from going out of business. And everyone in the world is supposed to want an iPad of their very own.

But if you were keeping up with the Twitterati, or Gizmodo comments, you would have noticed an overwhelming outpouring of disappointment in a device barely anyone has touched. Many cited a lack of expected features (such as a front-facing camera) for their displeasure. Others feel that iPad’s iPhone-based OS will limit functionality, such as multitasking. And gosh, what about its lack of support for Adobe Flash?

(Not to mention all of those period jokes.)

Do you, the Apple loyal, not remember the naysaying which occurred post-keynote for the first iPhone?

Are you, the Apple loyal, unable to imagine your lives before iPhone? Before apps? Before the convenience of that tiny little pocket computer?

Exactly.

How many of you have picked up and used an iPad? I know I haven’t. And I’m still excited about it. (David Pogue is too.) Here are my reasons why:

1. The iWork apps: In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a writer. And I would much rather carry around the 1.5 lb iPad than the 4.7 lb white MacBook. I currently own a 20 in iMac (which I absolutely adore) but I need to get out of my apartment to get work done. The iWork suite of apps for iPad will allow me to cozy up in my favorite coffee shop and type away. I’m also interested in the attachable keyboard for this purpose, as well.
2. The iBooks store: I have never been interested in e-readers before. I grew up as a voracious reader, testing at a college level when I was only 10 years old. The feel of pages underneath my fingertips, the scent of the ink and paper, these were almost as important as the story itself. And I realize iPad won’t have these qualities. But Apple’s ridiculous success with the iTunes and App Stores gives me faith that the electronic tomes within the iBooks Store will be up to scratch. Plus, the Kindle only does one thing; it stores e-pub. The iPad will host my email, let me browse the Internet, work on my novel, in addition to letting me read Chuck Klosterman’s latest. (And that’s not all!) Pretty solid stuff.
3. Using it in awkward places: This includes using it in bed. How many times have you overheated yourself with a laptop in bed? Fans don’t work particularly well against soft materials, which tend to block airflow. You can get a little table to prop the laptop off the bedding, but this isn’t comfortable either. The iPad, however, will eliminate this. By running off internal battery, you will no longer be tethered to the wall or ensuring the vent isn’t blocked. You can prop it on your knees and lounge. Or if you want to revisit childhood, read on your stomach underneath the sheets.

And as for missing features, did you really expect Apple to release a product which met every single expectation? Not only is that practically impossible, it defeats Apple’s business model. Whenever the second-generation iPad is released, there will be some new features that users rabidly want, or some improvements to the hardware and software. Apple wants its users to want and need every version of every device they create. This is how they make money. This is part of their success.

And this is why you will buy iPad. You will buy iPad, and you will love it.

Telltale Games has announced that they will be bringing their popular serialized games Tales of Monkey Island, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventure, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, and Sam & Max to the Mac. Starting on Windows, they have slowly been expanding to new platforms.

There are some rumblings that they will also be bringing their games to the App Store, but there hasn’t been any official word on when or if that is going to happen. Seeing as they’re trying to reach as many markets as possible, the App Store seems like the next logical step. I wouldn’t be shocked if we heard some sort of announcement from them in the coming months.

Perhaps the best news for those of us who have already purchased some of their games, the Windows and Mac version are being sold together. If you buy one, you have access to the other at no extra charge. Very, very smart of them from a public image standpoint. Not having to rebuy the same game for two different operating systems makes me feel nothing but affection for them.

Photo Credit: Marvin Kuo & Telltale Games

(via Joystiq)

Apple introduced the iPad a few days ago, and since then I have been trying to determine which model I will end up buying. I keep attempting to justify my need to purchase the Wifi + 3G Model. The cost difference between the Wifi model and Wifi + 3G is $130. $130 seems like a big jump in price so I began pondering… ‘Why so much for a lonely 3G chipset’?

According to iSuppli, the 3G baseband chipset for Cellular communications for the iPhone 3GS was close to $13.00. Now, let’s say it’s not an Arm7Core chipset for the cellular data, it’s a newer chipset. So, we’ll assume an increase to $15.00 to be generous. That’s $115 more for the 3G chipset models. Something doesn’t add up with this equation.

The data packages on the iPad are $15 a month for 250MBs of data and $30 a month for “Unlimited.” Wait, I currently pay $30 for unlimited data along with an outrageously high voice plan on my iPhone now. Also, if I were to get a 3G USB data plan it would be $60. How is AT&T going to make money? Simply put: Subsidy.

I believe as though part of Apple’s strategy and leverage with the iPad data was gained through giving AT&T a cut of the iPad sales in exchange for the reduction in the data package cost. If we take Apple’s $15 cost for part, standard 35% margin that comes to $20.25. So we take the $20 (we will round down to $20 for simplicity sake) that Apple is making off of each iPad Wifi + 3G model, that’s leaving around $110 left. That amount, in my best guess, is what AT&T will be receiving for each iPad device sold with 3G data. That $110 goes to immediately subsidize the reduced price of the AT&T data.

If you figure Apple sells 500,000 iPads with 3G, that immediately adds $55 million to AT&T’s coffers. That’s not exactly chump change. It is some serious dough. Just think of the amount of money AT&T would stand to make if Apple sells 2 million at that rate ($220 million).

Now, I can’t fault AT&T nor Apple for making this deal. I’m all for reduced pricing on data plans. As time has gone on, the dependency on voice has greatly been diminished while the consumptive rate for data has increased. Purchasing movies, games and streaming video will all most likely consume even more data than on your iPhone.

Photo Credit: isfullofcrap

From the not so surprising file, we’ve received a little bit of information that’s surely going to get everyone outside of the USA up in arms. Once again, just like the AppStore, Music Store, and TV Show Store before it, the Book Store is going to be US only according to Apple’s Australian website.

The fine print notice found on the Australian website does not appear to be present on all Apple’s country specific sites, and the Canadian website seems to be missing the notice as well.

So, this might not be a universal “US Only”, and instead might only be present for a couple countries where deals couldn’t be brokered before the device was announced.

The Canadian in me gets extremely riled up over this kind of crap. Time after time we’re treated like second class citizens, and I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling this way. I can’t wait until these draconian copyright laws bite the dust.

That being said, there are a few less than legitimate ways to gain access to an american iTunes account, so you might want to load up google.com and look into it. All it takes is an American credit card, or an American iTunes gift card. We’re not going to spell it out for you, but if you’re armed with the knowledge we just gave you it should be pretty simple to track down a step by step tutorial.

Footnote in question

[via Apple Insider]

If you missed yesterday’s big shindig about the long-awaited Apple tablet, you can now watch the complete keynote from Apple’s web site.

If you want to get up close and personal with the device, Apple also posted a video showing off all of the pure sexiness of the device.

On the iPad section of Apple’s site, you can also see detailed information about the features, design, app store, tech specs, and pricing. Don’t forget to go drool over the photo gallery, and then sign up to be notified of when you can order one.

So, do you like watching the keynotes the next day? Does Steve’s reality distortion field extend through moving pictures? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter.

Watch The Keynote

Photo Credit: Robyn Gallagher

I poked fun of the Nexus One a couple weeks back when the stocks took a hit. I knew full well that it was the norm, and that after any technology keynote there’s a period of sell, sell, sell from all the day traders. It’s pretty normal. Stock holders panic on the news because they’ve spent months speculating how great a device might be, but no matter what, the device never seems to live up to consumer expectations.  Apple isn’t any different, and upon the announcement of the iPad stocks plummeted.  But there was one key difference.

The key difference between the Nexus One and iPad stock drop

The difference between the Apple iPad release and the Nexus One release is that the graph looked completely different. For both the devices there was a sharp decline in stock prices at the moment of announcement for both devices, but the Nexus One didn’t regain the losses it had incurred throughout the Google Keynote. Apple, on the other hand steadily increased after it’s initial fall on the announcement of the iPad.

While people were skeptical about the iPad upon seeing it for the first time, it became quite apparent that Steve Jobs was winning over the crowd as he began showing off what the device can do. Heck, a the moment the pricing plan was announced the price surpassed the amount that Apple stock was at previous to the keynote.

A little part of me wonders if this stock chart might be indicative of the road that lay ahead for Apple when it comes to the success of the iPad. It certainly parallels the course taken by the iPhone since its release. People were skeptical about the iPhone, and slowly began warming up to it as word started to roll in from early adopters that the phone was a game changer. Sales steadily increased, and then suddenly it exploded into the phone we’ve come to love today. It wouldn’t surprise me if this graph could be turned into consumer interest in the iPad. I guess only time will tell.

[image via SingularityDsgn]

I am a heavy user of QuickTime Pro. I use it daily to record and produce audio content. When Snow Leopard’s QuickTime X was announced, I was thrilled by its pure sexiness. I couldn’t wait until I got my filthy paws on the new interface and screencasting features. Sadly, when Snow Leopard hit, I was incredibly disappointed in QuickTime X.

In fairness, they did move some pro features to the main branch. You can now export AppleTV and iPod versions of your video without paying a single dime extra. Unfortunately, there is no QuickTime X Pro. I can’t export my audio as an AIFF file in QuickTime X. I am forced to use the ancient QuickTime 7 to export audio. In fact, QuickTime X doesn’t even exist on the Windows platform. Those poor saps are stuck in the same boat as I am.

This raises the question: Why did Apple half-ass QuickTime X? Why haven’t they addressed the substantial hole they have created? It is unclear to me and everyone else I know. “Use the old version” is just simply not an answer. Apple pulled the same nonsense with iMovie ’08. “Yeah, it is kind of broken, but you can still use the old version.” That was pretty much the only explanation or response Apple gave us at all for why they are releasing broken software. This is unacceptable, and we need to let them know. Complaints, lack of financial support, and support of competing software are the only ways we can get it across to Apple that we won’t take their tomfoolery lightly.

Have a theory about why Apple is releasing broken software? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: Mr. Gunn