And now we wait for someone to jailbreak the iPad

Whether you’re excited about the iPad or not, you really have to admit that it’s a beautiful piece of hardware. What people disagree about is whether it’s worth having around, what with Apple’s chokehold on content and the limited inputs. Hell yeah, it is! But for flicking my way through word documents, watching scaled-down HD content in mono, and designing presentations? Nah.

It’s not until one of the thousands of hackers out there, with teeth sharpened on jailbroken iPhone apps, gets their iPad and cracks the mother wide open, that we’re going to have the real fun. And I have reason to believe that’s going to happen mighty fast.

Why do you think Apple neglected to include USB slots and an SD card slot? Because obviously they want you to buy the pre-approved games and apps from the App Store. Sure, those will be nice. Tower defense games are going to be fun as hell, and I’m looking forward to the big Diablo-esque dungeon crawler that’s surely in development. But brother, I want to play me some arcade games! I want a custom file browser, and support for obscure video formats! I want unfettered access to the device I just paid $500 for!

The single input is the big issue, but the dock is essentially a USB-to-iPad cable. Sync everything over that, even — dare I dream — driver support for multiple wireless controllers? I’m thinking how perfect this thing is for couch or travel gaming — but I’ll be damned if I’m going to limit myself to the App Store. Bring on the DOS emulators. Bring on dual-boot with Chrome OS.

The limitations are very few. With the iPhone, it still had to function as an iPhone — adding forbidden functionality on top of that was difficult and broke often. But the iPad is far less tethered to its OS, and I get the feeling that’s going to result in a bonanza for people willing to hack it.

See, here’s the thing. It’s not just that the iPad is a great device. You may or may not think it is; personally, I think it’s incomplete and compromised by Apple’s control fetish. If I pay $500 for this thing, I’m not buying an Apple product, I’m buying a beautiful touchscreen device that has hackers and developers the world over drooling over the possibilities. You may dislike that it’s the Applest Apple product ever to come out, but you can’t argue with the numbers being sold and the hardware itself. Decent CPU, discrete GPU, responsive touchscreen, familiar resolution — it’s a tablet computer, whether Apple wants to let you use it as one or not. I don’t know about you guys, but in my world, the consumer decides what the device is for, and the iPad is a great place to prove it.

 

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/04/01/and-now-we-wait-for-someone-to-jailbreak-the-ipad/

Redfish on iPad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxXLeeDrOtw&feature=player_embedded#

FreshPlanet Debuts With An iPad Game, Plus $1.5 Million From Clavier And French Angels

If you are going to launch a gaming startup this week, you might as well make your first game for the iPad. FreshPlanet is a stealthy startup looking to make its public debut with the launch of an educational game for children, Red Fish, on the iPad (iTunes link).

FreshPlanet is based in New York City and founded by two serial entrepreneur French brothers, Mathieu and Romain Nouzareth. It recently raised a $1.5 million Series A from Jeff Clavier’s SofTech VC and a bunch of French angel investors including Jacques Antoine Granjon (founder of Ventes-privees), Xavier Niel (founder of French ISP Free.fr), and Oleg Tscheltzoff (founder of Fotolia) via CapISF. Mathieu and Romain previously founded online game distribution service Boonty (sold t French company Nexway) and casual gaming site Cafe.com.

Red Fish is based on a popular French kid’s learning Website called Poisson Rouge. FreshPlanet licensed the game and developed a version specifically for the iPad to start. There is no iPhone version. “The big screen is much more interesting for us,” says Romain.

Red Fish teaches kids between 3 and 7 to count, read, spell, and even compose music all using the iPad’s engaging touchscreen. The app is free and comes with 12 different activities, but to unlock the rest (there are 50 total) will cost $9.99. You can watch a demo of the app in the video below. It gives you a good sense of how the iPad can become an educational game platform. Kids love touchscreens (mine are always fooling with my iPhone), and big touchscreens with games designed for them could prove irresistible.

 

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/01/freshplanet-ipad-game-1-5m-clavier/

The iPad: Apple’s Trojan Horse

Something struck me about Apple’s handling of the iPad launch this week. Instead of countless nerds spouting off in early reviews, only a few major tech press folks got early samples. Instead, the iPad showed up in a show the missus and I watch, Modern Family.*

That’s right: instead of an overfed talking-head tech reporter pawing over the iPad on morning TV, the iPad got prime-time coverage in a sitcom. Think about the last computer company to get that kind of screen time. Only Microsoft, in their abysmal product placement in Family Guy comes to mind. But in Modern Family the iPad was a major plot point. While I’m sure Apple paid a pretty penny for the exposure, I don’t doubt the folks at ABC would have put the product in for free had Apple asked.

But this shows a very important turning point in Apple marketing. The company, in short, sees the iPad as a mass market phenomenon without peer and is treating it as such. And the iPad, in turn, will become the tool that pushes Apple even deeper into the home.

The iPhone convinced millions of people that Apple makes nice phones. The iPad, in turn, will convince millions of people that Apple makes nice computers. Whereas the “halo effect” that the iPhone was supposed to have on the rest of Apple’s wares – laptops and iMacs and the line – isn’t quite apparent except in Apple’s impressive revenues, I suspect the iPad is going to push people over the hump. While you can get away with booting up craggy old Windows on your craggy old Dell while mucking about in iPhone’s sylvan glades, you’re less likely to appreciate your old laptop when its sitting alongside a device that looks like a cross between a robotic communion wafer and something out of Star Trek.

To describe this metaphorically, (and this is a horrible metaphor) think of the iPhone as a bicycle made by BMW. No one is going to upgrade to a Ford car if you’re only used to their bikes but if Ford starts to sell, say, something like an inexpensive Smart car or nice motorcycle with a little more power and all that BMW “magic,” there’s a good chance they’ll buy a Z-Series next time they’re looking at cars.

So the reason you’re not seeing geeks like us with iPads this week is simple – the iPad isn’t for geeks like us. While time will tell if this is a correct assessment, I’m almost betting on it.

 

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/04/01/the-ipad-apples-trojan-horse/

Worried About Flash on the iPad? Apple Tries to Ease Your Fears

Will popular websites, especially those from news and entertainment companies, work on the iPad? Apple, in an arguably brilliant PR effort now has an answer: an online collection of iPad-Ready sites.

The Cupertino-based maker of iPods and iPhones made a bold, potentially Internet-changing decision when it decided that the upcoming slate computer known as the Apple iPad would not support Adobe Flash technology. This browser plugin, used across the Web for everything from streaming video to casual games, is slowly being phased out by HTML5, the next revision of the core markup language used in the creation of Web pages. The video support included in the upcoming Web standard requires no downloadable, installable plugin in order to work. But HMTL5 is still new, and details - including what video codec it will support - have not been ironed out.

Apple's New "iPad-Ready" Collection

Initially spotted by the eagle-eye bloggers at The Next Web, the new "iPad Ready" resource available at www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad is a collection of websites that now officially work on the iPad.

According to the site's description, this collection includes websites that take advantage of standards like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. In other words, these are sites that have been designed just for the millions of new iPad owners expected to be online by the end of the first quarter this year.

Included in the list are CNN, Reuters, New York Times, Vimeo, Time, Major League Baseball, The White House, Virgin America, Sports Illustrated, Flickr, People Magazine and TED. Site owners who want their website listed can use the included submission form to be added to the list. Also, at the bottom of the page, there's a link to the Safari Technical Library documentation detailing how to get your Web content ready for the iPad.

Flash vs. HTML5: Did Apple Make this a War?

This "iPad Ready" site's launch seems all the more relevant in light of yesterday's news from Apple's newest rival Google: the Internet giant announced it would begin integrating Flash into its Web browser Google Chrome. Was that a shot at Apple? Or was Google genuinely interested in making Web browsing less complex for everyday users?

It's a valid question. The debate about Flash's future on the Internet is so hotly charged at the moment, that even WSJ reporter Walt Mossberg seemed afraid go into detail in his otherwise stellar, in-depth iPad review. The only mention he made was this: "I probably used the laptops about 20% as often as normal, reserving them mainly for writing or editing longer documents, or viewing Web videos in Adobe's Flash technology, which the iPad doesn't support, despite its wide popularity online."

Perhaps he honestly doesn't think the iPad's inability to display Flash content will be an issue...and maybe it won't be. But to ignore the burning question that many soon-to-be iPad owners have - that is: will my favorite websites work? - seems like an oversight at best.

These days, the Flash vs. HTML5 discussion is being framed as a "war" (and if you read through the comments of a post detailing video performance test results, you would think it certainly is). But the truth is, HTML5 isn't displacing Adobe Flash anytime soon. It likely will...eventually...but that day is years away. This is according to Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire, whose company is helping website owners prepare for iPad. The issue, said Allaire, is that the percentage of Web browsers that support HTML5 is "tiny," and those that do so haven't yet settled on one video codec as the default. Until there's uniformity in the implementation of HTML5 video, he said, publishers will offer multiple versions of their websites, dependent on what device, browser and operating system is in use by their website visitors.

So in the meantime, that means desktop Web surfers will see Flash, iPad Web surfers will see HTML5 on some sites and the "Flash broken blue lego" elsewhere. Even if that's the case, it won't, in the end, take away from the iPad's relevance in the new age of touch-based computing. It will just be a temporary setback until the rest of the Internet catches up with its own future.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/worried_about_flash_on_the_ipad_apple_tries_to_ease_your_fears.php

Is the iPad Secure Enough for the Enterprise?

What are the security issues with the iPad and how is it suited as a device for developing enterprise scale applications?

Those are the questions we posed to Ken Westin, the founder and CEO of ActiveTrak. Westin is a a security expert. His company develops a software and a service to track the location of a device if lost or stolen. In June, the company is introducing an enterprise version of its technology that will also go by the name ActiveTrak.

The iPad will become a device that we will undoubtedly see in the enterprise. It fits into the same space as a smartphone or social computing technology, applicable to personal and work life. Neville Hobson on the NextWeb cites a survey by Sybase about the interest in smart phones for the workplace and its correlation to the iPad.

But Westin says the iPad does have its own set of limitations that makes it an issue for development of enterprise security grade applications:

• The iPhone and iPad software has built-in PPTP, IPSec, Cisco VPN software. But more companies are moving to SSL VPN, which is not supported by the iPad. In time, though, a client should be developed for the product.
• The device may be able to access the domain, however it is different from being a domain member as an administrator cannot manage it, enforce group policies or push patches or apps to it.

Westin is supported by other security experts who cite Apple's lack of interest in security issues:

"The general consensus is that Apple continues to do only the absolute minimum to address enterprise security and supportability requirements," noted Andrew Storms, Director of Security Operations for nCircle. `We haven't seen any new enterprise iPhone security features from Apple since the summer of 2009 when they introduced their new hardware level encryption, which was almost immediately subverted. This is not the kind of behavior security professionals want to see in vendors.'

Recent events seem to illustrate that point. Security researches were able to compromise a fully-updated iPhone 3GS at the recent CanSecWest Pwn2Own competition. Storms warned me "If the iPad has the same OS as the iPhone then enterprises are going to be even more concerned about the data on this device.' "

Westin said it is the background processing in particular that makes the iPad less appealing for ActiveTrak. For instance, its application runs in the background on an Android device. An iPad, and for that matter an iPhone, does not provide that capability.

His company does provide a free application for the iPhone. It's free but it can only be activated if someone turns it on. To maneuver around the issue, Westin said they disguise the app button as a Safari icon, which activates the application. That's when the tracking starts by triangulation techniques using WiFi and GPS.

Westin is a fan of Apple. He uses a MacBook Pro. He says developer tools are better on the iPhone and it has a great community. But, Apple wants it all. It controls the hardware, the software and the content. That's a concern for the enterprise that wants to adopt the iPad. Such control over content is a problem as it gives Apple the power to wipe an application off a device without permission. That may seem unlikely in an enterprise setting but the possibility does lead to hesitation.

Further, Apple may make great high end products for consumers but it does not have the equivalent of a Blackberry server that can control the device and its content. Instead, the individual must have a MobileMe account. This can become a coordination nightmare for IT if the enterprise has 5,000 people who need an iPad.

Westin said ActiveTrak will wait until the iPad platfrom opens up more before developing.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/04/ipads-security-issues-and-its.php

iPad Business Apps: A Look at Box.net

The App store for iPad is live and it includes a number of apps for business use.It's a mixed bag, with media publications alongside apps from Cisco, LinekdIn and Box.net.

We got a demo of the Box.net app, and it provides a glimpse into how the iPad changes the customer experience, compared to the iPhone or a laptop.

We're not sure how a customer may actually use the app. The Box.net team says it may have an impact when a salesperson brings it to a sales meeting. They say the "business meeting" use case is there. But we agree with them when they also say that there will be a lot of use cases they did not anticipate.

Box.net focused on taking advantage of the larger screen and so it can be used in a number of orientations.

Initally, people will have the capability to view and share documents . Eventually, we can expect to see some of the new features that Box.net introduced in the past few months, including its viewer for watching videos in the Box.net environment. That would be interesting if no other reason than to see an enterprise-focused company adopt HTML5, as the iPad does not support Adobe Flash.

In the next few weeks, the company will add more features for the app:

• Download files from Box.net to the iPad
• Upload files from the iPad to Box.net
• Work with iWorks suite
• Ability to open third-party apps to edit certain files
• Launch the Box.net Ipad app from third-party apps

The iPad is not designed for creating documents. It looks like it better for viewing and sharing more than anything else. The keyboard is a shift that will take time to adjust to. Is the keyboard going extinct? If so, we still have a long way to go with the multi-touch experience.

The app is available for free from the App Store on the iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/04/ipad-business-apps-a-look-at-b.php

15 iPad Apps We Can't Wait to Download

Slightly ahead of schedule and to the surprise of many developers, Apple opened up the iPad store earlier today. As of now, there are already over 2,000 iPad apps available for instant download in the store. Some are iPad-only apps, but there is also a large number of universal iPad and iPhone apps that include versions for both devices.

Here at ReadWriteWeb, we are obviously very excited about the launch of the iPad store and have been scouring the App Store for the most interesting apps. Here are some of our favorites apps so far.

One caveat here, of course, is that we haven't been able to test any of these apps. We plan to test them all over the next few weeks, but for now, our recommendations are mostly based on the reputation of the developers and the screenshots that are available in the App Store.

News

Wall Street Journal (free download; $17.99/month subscription)

We want to test this app, if only to see the Wall Street Journal's subscription model in action. While the app will feature some free articles, full access will come at a hefty price: $17.99 a month. The design is very close to a standard newspaper layout.

New York Times Editor's Choice (free)

There is no full-blown iPad app for the New York Times in the store yet, so for now, this is the closest we will come to seeing the NYTimes' strategy for the iPad. This app will only feature a selection of stories.

Instapaper Pro ($4.99)

Instapaper is a long-time favorite of the RWW team. A bookmarklet or browser plugin lets you save the text of any newspaper article or blog post you find online and lets you read it offline in a distraction-free, text-centric view. The iPad app is basically a bigger version of the iPhone app (with the necessary layout changes). That's really all it takes to make us want to buy this app (though if you already own Instapaper Pro for the iPhone, this is a free upgrade that's probably already on your computer).

NetNewsWire ($9.99)

At $9.99, NetNewsWire, a very popular feed reader for the Mac and iPhone, is rather expensive. On the other hand, reading feeds on the large iPad screen is surely going to be more fun than on the iPhone. NetNewsWire syncs with your Google Reader account.

Productivity

Apple's iWork Apps ($30)

We assume that other developers will soon offer similar office suites for the iPad, but for now, Apple's own iWork suite looks like a winner to us. Being able to do Keynote presentations from the iPad will surely win over quite a few iPad skeptics who don't think that the device will be suitable for productivity apps.

Roambi (free)

We really liked the Roambi iPhone app when it was released in early 2009. This service allows business users to connect and manipulate sales data while on road (including Salesforce.com integration. On the iPhone, this was already a very visual app and judging from the screenshots, the iPad app will be even prettier and - we hope - even more functional.

Things for iPad ($19.99)

Things is a great to-do list app with a focus on the Getting Things Done methodology. It's a perennial favorite on the Mac and iPhone and the new iPad app looks like a winner as well. The additional screen estate makes it much easier to switch between lists and move items around, for example.

Currently missing from the iPad in the to-do list category are Todo for iPad and OmniFocus for iPad. Maybe these will come in a later update before Saturday.

Twitter

Twitterific for iPad (free)

Twitterific was an early favorite on the iPhone, though the latest version of Tweetie stole some of the Twitterific's user base. Tweetie hasn't made an appearance in the App Store yet, but Twitterific is already getting a lot of positive press and the screenshots in the App Store definitely make it look like the must-have Twitter app for the iPad

Streaming Video

Netflix (free download; monthly subscription)

Earlier this morning, we weren't sure if a streaming video app from Netflix was just an April Fool's joke or real. Well - now we know and this looks like it could be one of the killer apps for the iPad. After all, if the iPad is really a device for surfing the Internet on the couch, what better way to compliment that by just using it to watch TV shows and movies on the couch, too.

ABC Player (free)

Speaking of watching TV shows. Thanks to the ABC app, you can now catch up on the latest (and last) episodes of Lost without having to turn on your TV.

Music

Groove Maker (free and $9.99 version)

The iPhone fostered a small scene of underground cell phone musicians and the iPad's larger screen and faster processor (for creating those virtual synths) should make for an even better experience. Groove Maker is a loop-based app for creating electronic, dance and hip-hop, but other developers are also working on piano apps and complex virtual synthesizers for the iPad.

Pandora (free)

Thanks to the iPad's bigger screen, Pandora's iPad app will give you more info about the artist you are listening to. Besides that, no computer is really complete without access to Pandora.

Miscellaneous

WordPress (free)

Even though WordPress and others released blogging apps for the iPhone, the device's screen and keyboard were just a bit too small for a full-blown blogging application. On the iPad, however, screen estate is not an issue and the WordPress app now looks like you could actually compose a full blog post on it. Copy and paste, adding links and pictures might still be difficult, though.

Star Walk for iPad ($2.99)

Augmented reality astronomy apps were already a hit on the iPhone, but Star Walk shows off the potential of these apps on the iPad as well. Visually stunning.

Brushes ($9.99)

A screen this big is made for drawing apps and Brushes looks like the prettiest of the bunch so far. We are also looking forward to seeing more photo-manipulation apps and other drawing and sketching apps on the iPad.

Bonus:

Weather Station Pro ($1.99)

Without a doubt, there will be quite a few weather apps for the iPad. We like this one because of its minimalist design (and, we have to admit, because the developer also created our iPhone app and is currently working on an iPad app for ReadWriteWeb as well).

What Apps are You Waiting For?

Did you get a chance to look at the iPad store yet? What are the apps that are you waiting to try? Let us know in the comments.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ipad_apps_we_want_to_download_todayp2.php

Developer Support for iPad Spikes

Flurry, the analytics firm for mobile applications, has released an updated snapshot of iPad developer activities.

Flurry's Peter Farago broke it down on the Flurry blog.

"iPad made up 22% of new projects starts within Flurry over the last 60 days. In March, over 3,000 unique applications were created within Flurry. A second point of interest is that Android's share of new project starts has decreased from 18% to 8%."

However, Farago cautions against concluding that Android development is falling off.

"Android's percent has declined because iPhone and iPad growth is increasing at a rate faster than that of Android."

He also notes that Blackberry development is down, with only 1% of developers tackling that device, down from 4% in 2009. This is within the Flurry system of developers, it is worth noting.

The following graphic consists of "averages taken across 2009 vs. the last 60 days."

The take-away, in addition to the current spike of popularity for the iPad among developers, is the fact that "(t)he total pie is growing significantly, month over month."

Mobile continues to be a growth industry, as ReadWriteWeb has observed a number of times.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/developer_support_for_ipad_spikes.php