Wired Magazine and Safari on Apple iPad

Wired has been developing a digital version of their magazine called Wired Reader (video above) and demoed it at TED conference. The digital version is designed for use on tablet devices like the recently announced Apple iPad. Content for Wired Reader is created in Adobe InDesign, as is normally done for print magazine, but Wired added interactive elements like photo galleries, slideshows, animations and videos.
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ARM and Globalfoundries Develop 28nm System-on-a-Chip

ARM and Globalfoundries have released details about their upcoming system-on-a-chip (SoC) platform based on 28nm process technology. The new SoC will combine ARM’s top-of-the-line Cortex-A9 processor with Globalfoundries’ 28nm manufacturing process for improved performance and power efficiency. The new chip will target the smartphones, tablets and smartbooks.
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HTC Introduces HD Mini, Legend and Desire Smartphones

HTC has announced three new smartphones at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2010. The first phone HD Mini is based on Windows Mobile 6.5.3 and is a cheaper and smaller version of HD2. It comes with 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen, 600MHz processor, WiFi, Bluetooth and microSD card slot. The phone features HTC’s Sense user interface and focuses on Outlook, Twitter and Facebook integration. HD Mini will be available across Europe and Asia in April 2010.
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Symbian^3 Officially Announced

The Symbian Foundation today unveiled the Symbian^3 (S^3) platform, the first entirely open source Symbian release. S^3 is expected to be “feature complete” by the end of Q1 and the release will include: significant usability and interface advances, faster networking, acceleration for 2D and 3D graphics in games and applications, HDMI support (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), music store integration, an improved user interface with easier navigation and multi-touch gesture support, a feature-rich homescreen, and the ability to run even more applications simultaneously.
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Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series with Very Positive Initial Impressions

Microsoft today unveiled the next generation Windows Phone 7 Series that offers completely new approach to smartphone software. With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has started from scratch to bring truly integrated experiences by combining Xbox Live, Zune platform, social networking and productivity applications. Microsoft calls this approach “Designed for Life in Motion”.
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Samsung launches Bada Powered Wave S8500 Handset

Samsung today officially launched the much rumored first Bada OS powered handset Wave S8500 at MWC 2010. Samsung Wave is also the first handset to feature new Super AMOLED 3.3-inch touchscreen and Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. The phone comes with 1GHz processor, 5-megapixel camera, 2GB/8GB memory, 720p video recording, quad band GSM/EDGE, dual band HSPA, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS and microSD card slot. It measures 4.6” x 2.2” x 0.42” and packs 1,500mAh battery.
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What did Apple Miss on the iPad?

Apple’s much-touted iPad was launched on January 27th. Most of the must-have features we listed in the blog entry titled “5 Must-have Features For Upcoming Apple Tablet” are now part of the actual iPad feature list. But it’s not without limitations though. Below we compared which of the five features Apple has implemented in iPad and to what extend.

1. Operating System: We wrote in the older post “It will have elements from both the operating systems (Mac and iPhone) like App Store support from iPhone and run multiple applications like Mac OS X, but it will be very different from both operating systems.” Well now that we have seen the OS on the iPad, we can certainly say it’s more like iPhone than Mac OS X. However, even though iPad’s home screen looks exactly like the iPhone the difference in UI of the two devices is very imminent in applications that Apple showed on stage. There is no multitasking support for third party applications. It is likely Apple did this to offer longer battery life, which was the next feature we wrote about.
2. Longer Battery Life: We wrote “The tablet is a device that is designed to be used on the move, so if it could offer whole day use on a single charge it would make the device more useful.” We thought 8 hours battery life will be sufficient and iPad offers 10 hours, which is great. And from what we have seen in past, Apple devices normally offer quoted battery life in real world also.
3. iTunes Integration: Apple has not only brought iTunes integration on the iPad, but has also added new iBookstore for eBooks. The iPad also supports current iPhone applications and Apple has updated iPhone SDK to bring native support for applications designed specifically for iPad. As we wrote in last post “iTunes has played a big hand in success of the two devices (iPod and iPhone) and it will again play a very important role in success of Apple tablet.”
4. Wireless Sync: This is one area where we were very disappointed by Apple’s approach. We were hoping that Apple would use WiFi pairing that will allow wireless syncing between two devices via a router or directly whenever the two devices are near each other, which will keep the data up to date and offer hassle free syncing. To sync and backup data on iPad with iTunes, you will have to connect it via USB, which as we said before can be a problem for a device that is as big as iPad, if your primary computer is a small laptop like a MacBook.
5. Price: Like battery life and iTunes integration, price is one feature where Apple was right on the dot. There were rumors that Apple will price the iPad around $1,000, but just two days before the event we posted that our sources say, we will be surprised to see the price tag, which would be about half, around $500-$600. In the 5 must-have article also we wrote “Apple will need to price the tablet in $500-$600 range to gain traction in the market.” The starting price of the iPad is $499 and we believe it’s perfect for a product like iPad.

No one can predict how successful Apple iPad will be, but it looks like Apple is aiming in the right direction with the new iPad.

[Via TechzTalk]