It was the week the iPad 2 ate every other tablet's lunch including some not even launched yet. Seriously, do they think the Xoom is so much better that people are going to shell out $300 more for it than 5 of the 6 iPad models out there? That either is going to have to be one heck of a tablet or one tall, tall glass of Apple Haterade. Join us on the flip as we once again drool, speculate, and inform, just in case ya were too dazzled and missed it.
Features:
- iPad 2 Report Card: What We Got and What We Didn't - Sure, we're suckers for upcoming Apple device rumors just like everyone else out there, and we get ourselves massively pumped up for some sweet, sweet possibilities. Finally, the event and then... Then, inevitably, the excitement wanes when we find out what we didn't get. Though usually where the rumors were right is pretty tasty, enough so that we aren't too disappointed. How'd it play out this time? Well, school's in session and we've got the report card to prove it.
- iPad 2 First Look - So, yeah, the rest of us are pretty jealous of Susie, our intrepid on-the-ground reporter who got to put her mitts on the iPad 2 and really give it the hands on love. Here's her field report, complete with pretty pictures and her two cents.
- GarageBand for iPad 2: What We Know - Andy Ihnatko has already put the killer quote to this as far as we're concerned. Yes, Garage Band for the iPad 2 is going to unleash a torrent of awful, awful music, but you could have said the same thing for guitar lessons and a four-track. We made a round up of all that we could learn about this most excellent looking new app and compiled it all for you.
- iMovie for iPad 2: What We Know - By that same token, iMovie is just about professional quality in some respects for movie editing. It may not do for that next big Hollywood 3D blockbuster, but we can easily see smaller, independent filmmakers putting this to very good use. Will it make for far more awful, awful films? Quite likely, but it might also just make for some gems the studios would turn their noses up at.
How-Tos:
- Master Mac OS X Preview and Take Control of Your Media Imports - We haven't featured a Tip of the Week in a while, but we love ourselves Preview. Such an unassuming little piece of software that opens up a ton of PDFs before Adobe even gets started, but does so so so much more. How much more? Well, just take a gander at this set of skillz.
Reviews:
- Task Ave for iPhone Review - The mobile sphere has changed how we get things done and how we plan, but no matter how many lists and to-do apps and reminders you have set up, much of the success of these schemes still rests on you remembering the right thing at the right time in the right place. What if someone got some location services chocolate in your to-do list peanut butter? Ahhhh, now you'd have something. Read on, as Task Ave gets ready to blow your mind.
- Precorder Review - Speaking of mind-blowing, this one happens to us all the time. You want to record a short movie of something on your iPhone, but video takes up hard drive space like Charlie Sheen takes up headline space these days. And if you're not ready to go, then you miss the moment when it happens. What if you could be recording the whole time, barely taking up space, and have a ten second window in which to catch the event you want? That's Precorder, like a video camera with ESP.
News:
With a new iOS set to drop (and jailbreak communities no doubt crunching code as hard as they can to get a crack out quickly), we're surprised how many apps are a-poppin. Nevertheless, we've got hands full of app news up and down the spectrum...for instance, Hot Springs Story, the follow up to the quirky cool Game Dev Story of last year...another follow up that opts to take things in a completely and totally different direction is Firemint's Agent Squeek...and if that's not some super cool news, how about regular game lovers getting some Sonic and Sega kart racing games straight to our iPhones? Yeah, we thought you'd like that...let's just hope that racing fun is a little more entertaining than Drift Legends which is more like Legendary Frustration...from the non-frustrating super awesome news desk, let's just say that Infinity Blade: The Deathless Kings is sporting not only a huge content update, but -- miracle of miracles -- a tasty price cut at the same time...another big game name, EA, is releasing its biggest game of the year, Fight Night Champion, and it looks like they spared no expense in the graphics department...and retro games tap into our nostalgia and can be hugely popular, even if they don't sport the same killer graphics many newer titles do; case in point, Out of This World, flashing us all the way back to the Apple IIGS and the Commodore Amiga...and sometimes gamemakers come up with something that's just an insane pile of awesome of the kind you never knew you wanted until you heard it: and now we direct your attention to Machine Gun Jetpack. No, those aren't two separate things. That's one device, a machine gun jetpack. Yes, yes, and yes....more games? Sure, why not, it is after all the Game Developer Conference time of the year, so here's some awesome free stuff in our Free App Friday action...and here's a huge sneak peak at some as yet unreleased games from said conference to put your drool on in high gear....and last, but probably least fun app when compared to these heart pounding game apps, we have a utility showdown that looks unpacking and unzipping and unRARing your files, because data caps aren't just for the other guys anymore.
