We’re now at T-minus seven days and counting before the first wave of new iPads come flying into the hearts and minds of their early adopter owners, and already Apple’s online store is feeling the squeeze, with orders now shipping by March 19. But don’t get too bummed out -- there’s likely to be an ample supply at stores nationwide next Friday, assuming you don’t mind duking it out with all of the other procrastinators. Let’s find out what else is making news for this fine Friday, March 9, 2012, shall we?
Still on the fence about grabbing one of those swanky new iPads in time for launch day delivery next Friday? Turns out the choice is no longer yours -- Apple’s online store is now showing shipment dates of Monday, March 19 for all models and colors. Keep in mind that’s a ship-by date, which means you probably won’t be actually fondling your Retina Display-enabled buddy until sometime later the same week, most likely. Worse yet, the ship-by dates are likely to slip even further in the next seven days, so buying sooner than later is advised. Otherwise, Godspeed as you brave the throngs of unwashed masses who will surely amass at Apple retailers across the nation this time next week.
Remember iWork.com, which was launched as a beta way back in January, 2009? Yeah, we never used it either, but apparently some of you must have, because Apple has sent out a “very important service message” email to iWork.com users today announcing the end of the beta period. “As of July 31, 2012, you will no longer be able to access your documents on the iWork.com site or view them on the web,” the email reads. “We recommend that you sign in to iWork.com before July 31, 2012, and download all your documents to your computer.” The email provides a link to a support article on Apple’s website detailing the procedure for saving your iWork.com documents to your computer so you can port them into iCloud, should you so desire. RIP iWork.com, we hardly knew ya...
Foreigners, we feel your pain -- Apple is going to sell you a new iPad that won’t utilize 4G LTE on your home turf (unless that home turf happens to be Canada, where Telus, Rogers and Bell will be happy to snap up your cash). But the news isn’t all bad -- according to The Verge, Apple has confirmed that foreigners bringing their new iPads onto American shores will be able to take advantage of AT&T’s 4G LTE while here in the Colonies. Of course, you’ll need “the appropriate SIM and plan” and there’s no word yet on how to nab one of those. Foreigners, you’ll want to make an AT&T retail store one of your first stops after arriving here with your new iPad...
Unlike most of us, the eagle eyes over at Cult of Mac spied an interesting new bit of verbiage in the new iTunes terms and conditions that we all had to accept after installing iTunes 10.6 on Wednesday. In the section regarding In-App Subscriptions, one sentence explains how “certain paid In App Subscriptions may offer a free trial period prior to charging your Account.” Free trial period? That’s certainly news to us, and it’s been something developers have been chomping at the bit for Cupertino to offer practically since the first day the App Store opened back in 2008. Seems like an Apple attorney might have spilled the beans on this one, but we’ll all have to wait until this year’s WWDC to find out what the company might have in store for developers -- and end users -- with regards to free trials.
Macworld today posted a great opinion piece on a subject we’ve been thinking about since Wednesday’s unveiling of the new iPad: All those swanky Retina Display graphics are going to start inflating the size of our favorite apps (particularly games!), which could cause problems for many owners. The crunch will particularly affect budget-minded buyers who chose a 16GB model, but even 32GB and 64GB models could feel the walls closing in on them in the months ahead, especially if you tend to store a lot of space-gobbling media such as HD movies. “Let’s look at some of Apple’s own iPad apps to see whether fretting about how Retina iPad graphics affect file size is a waste of energy,” writes Macworld’s Lex Friedman. “Keynote went from 115MB to 327MB; Numbers increased from 109MB to 283MB, and Pages went from 95MB to 269MB. With the exception of iMovie (which also added in new support for iMovie Trailers as it ballooned from 70MB to 404MB), these apps increased their file sizes by a factor between 2.5 and 3. (iMovie is nearly six times larger than before.)” And those are just Apple’s own apps -- there’s likely to be a veritable flood of Retina-ready apps hitting the App Store in the weeks ahead, which could start making a 32GB or 64GB model even more enticing...
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