iPad

There is a leaked Best Buy document outlining details about exclusive sales of the iPad at Best Buy Apple Stores. Hit the links below for source documents and see the text/images for a short summary.

Best Buy’s Apple iPad Sales Playbook:
Apple is launching their new iPad on staturday, April 3 and best buy Stores with Apple Shops (about 575 stores) will begin selling them on this day. A future solution for all Best Buy stores is being discussed. At the time of launch, these products won’t be sold on BestBuy.com. At the time of launch, the iPad will only be sold at Apple retail stores, Apple.com and Best Buy Apple Shops.

April 11 ad insert nationwide
On April 11, the iPad will be on the front cover of the ad for all stores even though al stores won’t be carying the units at launch. Stores that don’t carry the iPad at launch should direct customers to the nearest Best Buy Apple Shop.

Apple Ipad SKU List
Best Buy will be selling the following products in the Apple shops:

iPad Accessories

Source:

For the full write-up hit Engadget and Tuaw.

A short note on the iPad UK release date and prices – it’s a rumored leak via Geeky Gadgets (link below), so take the news with a grain of salt:

iPad WiFi Model UK Price List (all prices in Pound sterling)
1. iPad 16GB WiFi Model will go for £389
2. iPad 32GB WiFi model will go for £439
3. iPad 64GB WiFi model will go for £489

No word on 3G pricing though – given the delayed release date of the 3G models this is not surprising.


The article has a short note on a bit delayed UK shipping date (April ‘10) as well: http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/apple-ipad-to-cost-389-in-the-uk-25-02-2010/

The rumor of the day revolves around the article posted on Yahoo! news that Hulu might be charging the iPad users for access to its services:

A Hulu app created specifically for the iPad… and one that you have to pay for (and probably keep paying for over time, the good old cable TV model). (Think YouTube for the iPhone, but with a subscription fee attached.)

The original article can be found here.
I am not sure how this one is going to pan out – yet, if priced right (read: low) it may have a shot. On the other hand, the offering will directly compete with the same content offered via iTunes and I am sure Apple is not going to like this. Let the fun begin…

I am not going to elaborate on this one a lot.

In short, as most of us expected, Google will respond to the iPad with a product running Android/Chrome OS – below are a couple of conceptual images as posted on Google’s site.

I am quoting what’s posted on the site:

This page contains visual explorations of how a Chrome OS tablet UI might look in hardware. Some possibilites they explore include:

• Keyboard interaction with the screen: anchored, split, attached to focus.
• Launchers as an overlay, providing touch or search as means to access web sites.
• Contextual actions triggered via dwell.
• Zooming UI for multiple tabs
• Tabs presented along the side of the screen (see Side tabs)
• Creating multiple browsers on screen using a launcher

If you haven’t been overwhelmed by rumors here is a good one for you. TechCrunch (will post link later, as the TC site is down) reports that Apple forged an alliance (should we call it a joint venture?) with BN to deliver book, newspaper and magazine content to iPad devices. I am not sure how does the NOOK fit into this gambit but this one as well may turn out to be true. Watch out Kindle (oh, well, kind of)…

Fake or true? An alleged iPad ad surfaced today:

There seems to be a lot of buzz about Apple potentially replacing Google as the default search provider on the upcoming tablet (oh, should I say iSlate – it’s just so hard to adopt that name) – Anyhow, the rumor mills are spinning option that Bing will be replacing big G as the default search provider. To put a cherry on the top there is a rumor that the Apple Search Engine is in the works – I would not be surprised if this was true, many have tried, many…

Finally, here is the invite cover for the Yerba Buena (Jan 27 2010) event:
(image property of CNET):

Several visitors have brought to my attention that it’s unlikely that Apple’s new device is going to be named the iPad as Hewlett Packard supposedly own the trademark for the name. I’ve done a quite of digging on this subject and I am yet to find an evidence of this somewhere on the web. Apparently HP iPAD was registered at the same time when they registered name iPAQ (If my memory serves me correctly it was Compaq iPAQ not HP iPAQ that first hit the market) – while this may make sense I seriously doubt that such a big company with wide palette of products and trade names would go down this path. Anyhow, I never liked the device it was clunky and hard to use, I had a lot of potential but that stupid Windows CE was always a turn off for me. For our younger readers here is the link for the site featuring this dinosaurus (HP iPAD, I mean, come on? REALLY?)

LA Times has a nice yet limited piece on Apple’s stock movement. Anyhow, I am quoting the author here: …Amid speculation about an upcoming tablet computer, Apple’s shares have risen 145% this year…. More at LA Time’s site here.
Hexus(dot)net claims that iPad is about to be announced in January ’10, that developers are being asked to start developing apps for a full screen touch screen apps (major demo in January 2010), and the site is passing on FT Wednesday report claiming that Apple has booked Yerba Buena Center for a large event on 1/26/10. Oh, let’s see where this takes us…

OK – you probably saw the post below where I had a blurb on the release delay of the upcoming Apple tablet – there has not been much other news about the device lately. Yet, a day or two ago Apple took control of TABLETMAC trademark and it appears that they will be using this tag to name the new device.

Apple has taken control of the TabletMac trademark, a moniker previously owned by a company called Axiotron. To see previous references to the trademarked name follow this link. In short, the company was modding Macs by removing the keyboard and screen of a Apple’s MacBooks and mounting a Wacom pen screen instead. The official site of the company is here: Axiotron.com.