Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled a suite of Microsoft Surface products, including a signature tablet. The 9.3 mm Microsoft Surface tablet, powered by Windows 8, is a hair thinner than the 9.4 mm iPad 3, and its 10.6-inch display has a full inch on the iPad’s. The Surface’s two standout features are a full-sized, multitouch keyboard with trackpad that also doubles as the device’s case, and a built-in kickstand for hands-free use. It also includes a magnetized stylus that uses digital ink and a full-sized USB 2 port.
A little torn on this. Granted, we tend to be reflexively anti-Microsoft at times, but this probably is the most-aggressive attempt to take on Apple we’ve seen yet, and it’s worth taking seriously. They took Apple’s biggest iPad weakness — the lack of physical keyboard — and banked the entire device on it. It’s a smart approach, but you know, it’s one that seems like it’d be simple for a Kickstarter to copy completely. It’ll be interesting to see how this affects third-party vendors, too. Either way, this seems like an attempt to take out the netbook — if they price it right, at least.
Here’s the full list of devices that will be compatible with iOS 6 when it releases this fall.
Apple has confirmed that, with the launch of iOS 6, Siri will make the leap to the new iPad. Still no support for the older models though.
Even with 40 percent more seating, the two tons shed by removing in-flight entertainment systems helped the airline cut the total weight of each plane by about seven percent. Fuel costs account for nearly 40 percent of all expenses, and with prices up 36 percent in the last two years, Scoot hopes the savings will allow the airline to continue to offer ultra-low rates. Parent company Singapore Airlines Ltd hopes that the cuts will allow Scoot to take back a portion of the 26% market share lost to fellow budget airlines Jetstar and AirAsia Bhd.
(Photo via John Karakatsanis, hat tip to The Verge)
The prototype iPad will have a new home by the end of the day, with bidding on eBay scheduled to end at 9:20pm PDT. The device features a 16GB hard drive, built-in WiFi, and dock connectors for use in either portrait or landscape mode. (We admit it — we totally wish the non-prototype iPads had that last feature.) The only question now is, will this succeed where previous efforts to sell Apple prototypes have failed? (Photo via MacRumors) source
Yahoo is about to launch a Web browser: Axis, Yahoo’s somewhat belated attempt to get into the Web browser game, is an iOS app/desktop browser plug-in intended to take a step out of the process of searching for a Web page — rather than flooding you with links, search is directly inside the browser, creating a fully integrated experience. Yahoo appears to have announced the browser a little early — video links to the desktop launch video have been up and down (currently up), but the iOS launch video is up. The site is also down, though the launch time is rumored to be tonight. We’re curious but pretty sure this won’t replace Chrome for us.
Whoa. Resizable windows come to the iPad: This iPad jailbreak app, called Quasar, lets you resize apps and run them, Windows-style. It costs $10 on the Cydia store. It’s most certainly buggy. But we suddenly want to jailbreak our iPad to try this out.
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Bob Stein, who worked at Encyclopedia Britannica as well as Atari during its glory days, worked with Alan Kay, along with Disney animator Glenn Keane, on a series of illustrations back in 1982 showing off his idea for an “Intelligent Encyclopedia,” one which can tell you about earthquakes, stocks, and history, all within the palm of your hand. Laptops didn’t look like this for nearly a decade, and the ideas behind the encyclopedia eventually showed up on Wikipedia two decades later. But, really, what Atari was working on was essentially an iPad with a keyboard. “The most interesting thing for me today about these images is that although we foresaw that people would be accessing information wirelessly (notice the little antenna on the device in the “tide pool” image),” Stein notes, “we completely missed the most important aspect of the network — that it was going to connect people to other people.” Stein’s ideas aren’t a total loss — the guy did essentially invent the multimedia CD-ROM and co-founded The Criterion Collection — but just think if he actually implemented this idea.
» But there’s a major downside: Because the FAA is so entwined with the kind of red tape only a complicated government organization could invent, if things are decided a certain way, it could force some crazy rules before an airline could allow such devices. For example — just for the right to allow the iPad on their plane, the current standards would force each airline to test each version of a device in a plane by itself (i.e. no passengers) to make sure everything was OK. If that sounds like an insane waste of money, that’s basically how the airlines feel.
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Rumors are swirling of an Apple event to be held in either San Francisco or New York next week. Sources have told various news organizations that the event will be the launch of the iPad 3. [Photo: CNBC]
CNBC’s sources appear not to be that awful if they got a hold of this.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m045hwed1Y1qz5ew6o1_500.jpg)
Rumors are swirling of an Apple event to be held in either San Francisco or New York next week. Sources have told various news organizations that the event will be the launch of the iPad 3. [Photo: CNBC]
CNBC’s sources appear not to be that awful if they got a hold of this.
ALERT: Quad-Core iPad 3 with 4G LTE to be unveiled in New York next week. -Sources
— CNBC (@CNBC) February 28, 2012
Waiting for further confirmation, but one thing that’s interesting about this announcement is that it’s pretty rare for them to have a product launch in NYC. It’s kind of a major change for the company if that’s true.
EDIT: Hearing two things; first, the quad-core thing might be bunk, and second, CNBC may be wrong about the NYC thing. Both of those appear to be somewhat speculative, though. We’re waiting for more solid ground on this.
“Whether you’re at a conference or at home … you now have storytelling at your fingertips.” Storify co-founder & CEO Xavier Damman’s totally psyched about bringing his popular online story-telling tool to the iPad. While Storify, which pulls content from a variety of social networks, does not contain all the functionality of it’s Internet-based counterpart, the team at Storify is confident that they’ve successfully migrated the core Storify experience to iOS. The team also added an additional function not found on the Storify website: The ability to tweet, inside the app, while creating a story. Have you tried it yet? source
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