China may be the nucleus of Apple's very being in terms of manufacturing, but in terms of product releases, still generally has to wait until the United States, Europe, and much of the world has gotten its fill before seeing the likes of the iPhone and iPad. Today, the Cupertino company has released an official press statement, detailing the release of the iPhone 5 and iPad mini to the increasingly lucrative Chinese market, set to arrive in December.
To celebrate a little bit of worldwide gaming history and to mark the 40th anniversary of the famous Pong game, Atari has taken the opportunity to release the first official Pong game onto the iOS App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
The Adobe Photoshop Touch app may be familiar to a lot of design professionals who love the versatility and power of being able to create and edit photographs on the go, but the chances are that it has actually managed to pass a few people by without creating to much of a fuss. Love it or hate it, Photoshop is definitely one of the most popular design apps of choice for those who deal with this sort of thing on a daily basis with the iPad.
Google has taken the world of Web browsers by storm in the past couple of years, with its Chrome offering quickly having become the utility of choice for surfers worldwide. The Android version has been solid from the get-go, and with the recent introduction of the iOS iteration, the Big G finally brought its famed browser to the iPhone and iPad. Despite Apple's restrictions on developers bringing their own engines to the iOS fold, the engine certainly isn't the end-all, be-all, and today's updates for Chrome on iOS today prove that point once more.
Last year, the release of 500px took the iPad world by storm. Prior to its release, there had been a distinct lack of photography apps suited to the Cupertino tablet, with devs preferring to cater to the iPhone. But 500px reminded us that a well-polished app for iPad can wind up being just as much of a hit with iOS users, and so it has proved. Now, the app popularized by the iPad has been wonderfully reworked for the iPhone, and is now ready and waiting for you at the App Store.
It still seems very strange to be talking about the success of devices like the iPad and Nexus 7 and the different levels of market share that Google and Apple hold in the tablet industry considering that this particular market didn't really exist until Apple forged it with the release of the initial iPad back in 2010. We may have recently seen the fourth-generation iPad released but it has only really been thirty-two months that companies have been competing in this space. With that said, recent figures are showing that the dominant iPad is losing some market share to Android powered tablets in the run up to the holiday shopping season.
The iPad is a great product, but like all great products, it doesn't come without its fair share of flaws. Despite single-handedly helming the tablet market for the past two-and-a-half years, we could all pick out issues we'd like to see resolved, and one of the most obvious is the relatively poor speaker design. With the iPhone, the speakers are positioned along the bottom, meaning whichever way you lay it down, the audio - albeit slightly tinny - can always be heard. The iPad's speakers are located on the back of the device, and even though Apple has improved the sound quality through generations of its flagship slate, pushing sound out in the opposite direction doesn't cut it for a device of the iPad's caliber.
Whilst the idea of controlling all elements within the home from one device is a concept with futuristic overtones, it's not as though the tech isn't already in place, and one can easily find an app for a smartphone or tablet to open curtains, unlock doors, or more recently, control colorful lighting. With this in mind, Savan Kotecha - music producer for the X Factor, has laden his home in gadgets and contraptions that play nicely with his favorite iOS device - the iPad. He's spent a sum total of $80,000 (and counting) to turn his Hollywood pad into what looks like a geek's dream, and a great deal of his electrical compliances are now controlled from the comfort of his iPad.
Microsoft has made no secret of the business acumen of Windows 8 and products such as the Surface. We've already seen this model marketed with Emirates Airlines, an upmarket company already seen to be embracing the Redmond company's technologies, and while Emirates could have gone all tablety long before now, it waited for the "security and robustness" provided by Microsoft. The idea of Windows 8 tablets and products being the, secure, go-to option for businesses has taken a bit of a hiding today, though, with the news that British bank Barclays has forked out at least £3.3 million to purchase 8,500 iPads, a move said to be a part of "improving the customer experience."
Both LG Display and AU Optronics are currently supplying the displays for Apple’s new iPad mini tablet, but with AU reportedly having some production issues, it's looking as though LG is carrying much of the burden. The report surfaces from the hit-and-miss DigiTimes citing the usual "sources familiar with the matter," and although the two companies are considered the “main display suppliers," it would seem the vast majority of iPad minis are packing a screen manufactured by LG.
