There’s something in the air that we can’t quite put our finger on. Could it be the reports of new Apple TV buyers receiving their preorders a day early? Or the new iPad launch kicking off in other parts of the world where it’s already Friday? Perhaps the tingle we’re feeling at every truck that drives past our door, hoping maybe, by some miracle, the new iPad will arrive early as well? It’s probably all of the above, because it’s one of those kind of days… as in, Thursday, March 15, 2012.
It must be Friday 8am somewhere, right? That means it’s time for an iFixit teardown of Apple’s new iPad, which commenced virtually in real time today. Wait a second: How did they already get an iPad, you may ask? Well, the day has already passed in the land down under (i.e., Australia), which is where the iFixit team flew to be among the first to grab the new Retina Display-equipped iPad and put it under the knife. There hasn’t been too many shockers: The display is supplied by Samsung, and most of the leaked parts we’ve seen over the last several weeks match what’s actually inside this sucker. Last we checked, the team was still examining the new iPad, so be sure to check back for the full teardown, and follow iFixit on Twitter to be prepared for the next teardown.
It can’t all be about the new iPad today, and sure enough, The PayPal Blog has announced the company’s new mobile payment initiative, PayPal Here. Billed as “the world’s first global mobile payment solution that allows small businesses to accept almost any form of payment,” PayPal Here features a triangular dongle (opposed to competitor Square’s square one… get it?), but also provides a number of other payment options as well. “[Merchants] can accept payments by swiping cards with a fully encrypted thumb-sized card reader, or use a phone camera to scan and process cards and checks,” the blog notes. “It also allows them to invoice directly from the mobile app and, of course, accept PayPal in a brand new way.” Transactions have a simple flat rate of 2.7 percent for card swipes and PayPal payments, and businesses will have a debit card available for quick access to funds which nets one percent cash back on eligible purchases. PayPal Here is rolling out today for select merchants in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Hong Kong, opening its doors to all takers next month, with more to come. Interested merchants can sign up to be notified when the service goes wide on the PayPal website.
Boinx Software announced a major new update to iStopMotion for iPad, its award-winning iOS app for creating stop-motion and time lapse videos. As you can well imagine, the new five megapixel rear camera on the new iPad -- capable of 1080p video recording -- will make an ideal companion to iStopMotion 1.2. And hey, those new videos will look fantastic on that Retina Display now that the app has been optimized especially for it with this version! “The new iPad is the dream machine for running iStopMotion for iPad 1.2,” said Oliver Breidenbach, CEO, Boinx Software. “The much improved optics of the built-in camera make for much nicer image quality, the improved performance of the new iPad allows us to support full 1080 HD formats, and the app just looks gorgeous on the Retina display.” If you haven’t grabbed iStopMotion for iPad, version 1.2 is now in the App Store at a special introductory price of only $4.99 through Saturday, March 17 (the price goes back to $9.99 on Sunday, March 18).
Streaming service Hulu hasn’t updated their Hulu Plus iOS app for Retina Display quite yet, but the company’s blog did have a little announcement today that’s bound to please those who still watch video at their computer. “I’m pleased to present to you our beautiful, new Hulu video player. Your favorite shows just got bigger,” Hulu product director Varun Narang writes on the Hulu Blog. “Today, we replaced our old video player with an update that’s 55 percent larger. It has a new frame and a drop shadow and sits on top of a large, dark gray video matte for easy viewing. We moved all of the video details below the player and cleaned up the pattern and style for a cleaner, crisper look.” We checked it out and it’s definitely welcome on our 30-inch monitor here at the MacLife.com Newsdesk, and just in time for Community to return to the airwaves tonight, too! Thanks, Hulu!
While you’re waiting for that shiny new iPad to show up tomorrow, you might want to hit the App Store, which is quickly filling up with a whole lot of Retina Display-enabled app updates. Among them are two favorites from Evernote, including version 4.1.9 of the company’s flagship app as well a new build of Skitch for iPad. Aside from Retina optimization on both, Evernote adds better checkboxes and text editing for the iPad, suggested note titles for all devices and a lot of bug fixes, while Skitch for iPad 1.0.4 brings smoother transitions for screen changes and device rotation as well as an improved screenshot mode. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Kindle app for iOS has just been bumped to version 3.0, just in the nick of time for the new iPad. Along with optimizations for the new iPad’s Retina Display, the app introduces a slick new library design, plus a cloud view reminiscent of the e-tailer’s Kindle Fire UI, which displays all of your available ebooks for download. You know where to find ‘em, so hit the links and get downloading!
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