Some people think the iPad is so gorgeous it doesn't need a case. I disagree, and my favorite overall case is Joy Factory's SmartSuit 3.

I'm surprised we could narrow it down; this took some doing. After about 70 hours of trolling published reviews and surveys of every case available for the new iPad, we called in roughly a dozen finalists to check the fit and feel ourselves. We eliminated the obviously ugly, cheap-feeling, poor-fitting, ill-reviewed cases in previous iPad 2 iterations, and selected the most protective, ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing models available. We looked at every model from makers like Speck, Targus, XtremeMac, G-Form, Switcheasy, Marware, DODOcase, Grovemade.

Full iPhone and iPad Access

Save iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch app data, voicemail, text messages, iMessages, call log, notes, contacts, music and photos to your Mac.

A few days ago I updated this site’s Web clip icon to be 300×300 pixels.

It looks great in Reeder, and it looks good as a Home screen icon on new and old iPads and on the iPhone 4/4S.

There are two (yea, three) ways to upload your Web clip icon and make it discoverable:

The new iPad's display is a huge step forward in both pixel density and being able to represent a wider color gamut. While it's still no where near the quality of high-end PC displays, this is real progress for tablets. The bar has been raised.

However, Apple’s definition of a “Retina Display” is actually for 20/20 Vision (defined as 1 arc-minute visual acuity). 20/20 Vision is just the legal definition of “Normal Vision,” which is at the lower end of true normal vision. There are in fact lots of people with much better than 20/20 Vision, and for almost everyone visual acuity is actually limited by blurring due to imperfections of the lens in the eye. The best human vision is about 20/10 Vision, twice as good as 20/20 Vision, and that is what corresponds to the true acuity of the Retina. So to be an actual “True Retina Display” a screen needs at least 573 ppi at 12 inches viewing distance or 458 ppi at 15 inches. The 326 ppi iPhone 4 is a 20/20 Vision display if it is viewed from 10.5 inches or more. Unfortunately, a “20/20 Vision Display” doesn’t sound anywhere near as enticing as a “Retina Display” so marketing and science don’t see eye-to-eye on this…

One of the more interesting questions raised by the new iPad and its retina display is whether or not web sites should deliver higher resolution images when there is no way to know the connection speed. AppleInsider found that Apple.com is being prepped to deliver high-res images and documented how you can test it in Safari on your desktop.

As you can imagine given my research on responsive images, I was keenly interested to see what approach Apple took.

What they’ve chose to do is load the regular images for the site and then if the device requesting the page is a new iPad with the retina display, they use javascript to replace the image with a high-res version of it.

The heavy lifting for the image replacement is being done by image_replacer.js. Jim Newberry prettified the code and placed it in a gist for easier reading.

The reason that the 1080p versions of the iTunes Store videos can be a good deal better without doubling the file size—or worse—can be found in the tech specs of the new AppleTV and the new iPad. The AppleTV now supports H.264 compression for 1920x1080 resolution video at 30 frames per second using High or Main Profile up to level 4.0, the iPad and the iPhone 4S the same up to level 4.1. The profile indicates what kind of decompression algorithms the H.264 decoder has on board—the "High" profile obviously has some tricks up its sleeve that the "Main" or "Baseline" profiles known to previous devices don't support. The level value indicates how many blocks or bits per second a device can handle.

The A4 SoC that Apple used in the iPhone 4 and the second generation AppleTV as well as the A5 in the iPad 2 can handle Main Profile level 3.1, which is good enough for 1280x720 video at 30 frames per second. The original AppleTV can only handle 720p at 24 frames, and earlier devices are limited to SD video. This means that the increased 1080p resolution breaks compatibility with everything older than the iPhone 4S anyway, so Apple is free to use the high profile, resulting in better compression for a given quality level. The files are larger, but not that much larger. Whether the increased resolution comes with extra visual fidelity, however—and thus worth the extra download time—will vary from movie to movie and show to show.

While the focus of Wednesday's Apple event was primarily on "the new iPad" and the perpetual hobby that is the Apple TV, we would be remiss to forget iOS 5.1. Past point releases of the OS included notable improvements like Game Center in iOS 4.1, and the Nitro JavaScript engine, better Home Sharing, and Personal Hotspots in iOS 4.3. While Apple updated apps, and released the stunning iPhoto for iOS, how is iOS 5.1 itself likely to be compared to past releases? To some, it will be a little disappointing. 

With the help of Ars's Macintosh Achaia to refine the points for this article, here are ten annoyances that will remain with us as part of iOS—at least until the next iOS release rolls around.

Apple’s product launches may be the most obsessively-covered media events on the planet — presidential press conferences possibly excepted — but that doesn’t mean that people understand them.

Actually, as I mulled over today’s new iPad event and its implications, I’m struck by how little of the conventional wisdom about these rollouts feels like wisdom. Much of it is crude, out of date or just plain wrong. Including some of my own assumptions.

(PHOTOS: Apple Announces New iPad)

So here are seven things that a lot of people seem to believe they know about Apple’s events. The more attention you pay, the less they ring true. I think of them as, well, mythperceptions.

With the launch of the next generation of its iPad tablet, Apple Inc. has staked, once again, its claim to the throne atop the tablet kingdom — while at the same time opening a window for its rivals to finally catch up.

As Apple chief executive Tim Cook wrapped up his first major product unveiling event since the death of his company’s iconic co-founder Steve Jobs last fall, perhaps no one was as excited about what he had to say as Apple’s competitors.

Despite all the hype and media attention surrounding the launch of Apple’s third generation iPad — which Apple is simply calling “The new iPad” — investors and observers responded to the Cupertino, California company’s latest offering with a collective shrug.

For Apple’s rivals, most notably Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., the incremental improvements in the latest iPad may be just the opportunity they need to establish themselves as legitimate competitors to the world’s most valuable company.

"Jag har läst alldeles mycket om iPad på nätet den senaste tiden, både sågningar och hyllningar. Här kommer mina tankar sammanfattade:"

Mina första kommentarer om iPad efter lanseringen. Ganska träffsäkra sådana.

Snyggt ställt för iPad 2 som påminner om en elegant Apple-skärm.

This hasn’t been one of those experiments-for-the-sake-of-experimentation in which someone temporarily forsakes a PC for another device in order to write about the experience (like, say, this). No, I’ve been using the iPad for my daily activities–running Technologizer, writing for TIME, CNET, and AllBusiness.com, and more–because I find it to be the preferable tool in multiple respects. I’ve been using it about 80 percent of the time, and using my MacBook Air about 20 percent of the time. I have no desire to go back.
If this startles you, I understand. It seems to startle most folks who notice I’m doing it. I’m startled myself. Or at least I was at first–at this point, I’ve been doing it long enough that I forget there’s anything unusual about it until someone reminds me.

As exciting as every new major iOS release is, there’s just as much if not more excitement in finding the little things that no one knows about. Apple spends a lot of time creating major additions and changes for their releases, and then lets the users try to figure out all the small stuff. Well, not everyone has time to figure them out or doesn’t want to go through the effort to do so. This is where MacStories comes in. We know our readers are all about the details, so we went on to scan, search and pry our way through iOS 5 to find many of the hidden treasures that will make your iOS experience even better.

I’ve had laptops and cellular internet connectivity for 7 years, but I never would have done something like this before. Why?

I wouldn’t have been able to easily find a good app to do this without being bombarded with spam in my Google search. (And many of them would be Windows-only.)
When I did finally find an app that looked reasonable, I wouldn’t have been able to find any trustworthy reviews, being bombarded instead by more search spam.
When I went to buy it, it probably would have cost more.
I wouldn’t have trusted it comfortably enough to install it on my computer.
It might not even work.
If it did work, I’d probably need longer to figure out its learning curve, and navigating wouldn’t be as easy or fast with a keyboard and trackpad.
Taking out the laptop in the car, and passing around a laptop to show the final product, would feel much clunkier than using the iPad.
The computing revolution brought on by iOS, the hardware, and the App Store ecosystem is a bigger deal than we realize.

The stylish stylus for iPad

Just Mobile AluPen™ is a chunky pencil-shaped stylus that gives you precise control over your iPad/ iPad 2, iPhone and iPod touch.

Sculpted from aluminum, with a soft rubber nib, the AluPen™ makes drawing and writing a uniquely smooth experience. 

Which is why it’s the essential accessory for creative tableteers.

The process of loading a URL in a new tab on iPad can be rather cumbersome and slow. First, one launches Safari from the home screen, waits for the app to open and the old webpage to re-render, then one hits the tab switch button, presses the new tab space, waits for that tab to open, waits for it to switch to the search panel (this is the most irritating part of the process, since it seems to take even longer when what one really wants is the URL bar), and finally, one clicks on the URL bar to enter in a new URL.

To simplify this process considerably, just add a new icon to your Springboard that goes directly to about:blank. Details after the jump.

Apple's 91-day quarter yields some impressive numbers -- take them apart a little and you get the kind of stats you can reel off at a dinner party without being seen as too utterly crushing a bore, for example, did you know there's one iPhone being sold for every two people being born into this world today?

Apple sold 16.24 million iPhones in the December quarter. That sure is a lot of iPhones, and while dwarfed by the 650 million bottles of Heinz Ketchup sold around the world each year means Apple sells more iPhones each year than there are cars sold worldwide.

When I got my first iPhone two years back I adapted the theme here on xdeb.org to work better with it. I documented it in my post Make a Drupal theme look better on the iPhone.

During the holidays I got to try out the iPad for a few days and found ways to make the xdeb.org theme work better for it as well.

Ensuring that your iPhone or iPad app is accessible (in this case, to visually impaired users) is the right thing to do, and thankfully it’s very easy – in many cases, there’s no work to do at all. This article for iOS developers describes how to implement accessibility support.

Khoi Vinh: Because I recently left a job at one of the most prominent publications in the world, people often ask me about my opinions on the cavalcade of publications rushing to the iPad — those apps designed and developed by newspapers and magazines principally to deliver their print content — and the chances I see for their success. So here it is.

"Take iPod for example -- very expensive, only worked with Macs (latest with firewire). Then USB solution came, but still PCs didn't have iTunes, thus significant work arounds required. Nobody took Apple seriously on iPod -- too expensive & minute addressable market.

"Couple, three years later -- all in rapid succession -- Apple releases iTunes for Windows, iTunes Music Store, cut prices and introduced the iPod mini. Within 9-12 months iPod share exploded from 20-30% to 70-80%. Just like that Apple had sewn it up. It was too late for competitors. None of any valiant attempts were able to dent iPod share thus they folded their hands in concession. iPod created a new market.

Smartphones were an established consumer-electronics market with devices that people thought were pretty cool, but often frustrating and with serious shortcomings and design flaws.

Then this happened:

Compass is a stylish compact folding stand that lets you use your iPad in two different modes. First, as an easel, Compass displays iPad in both portrait and landscape modes. Second, flip open the secondary leg and Compass now holds your iPad at the perfect angle to let your fingers fly across iPad’s onscreen keyboard.
Forged from heavy gauge steel, this slim, travel friendly stand lets you enjoy both hands-free and hands-on use of your iPad anywhere your iPad goes. iPhoto slideshows to Keynote presentations, Compass lets you see and do more with iPad. Compass folds up to the size of candy bar, requiring very little space in your backpack, computer bag or purse. Store it in it soft travel sleeve, which matches the Apple iPad case, and you’re ready to go.

After a month of heavy use, I don’t think it’s good for any of those. A more accurate list might be:

I’ll play games on it.1
I’ll check email on it, but not respond much, because that requires a lot of typing.
I’ll check RSS and Twitter on it, but not exclusively.
I’ll read for short periods on it before my hands get tired of holding it.
The iPad is a great device, but what’s it for, really?

iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems.

This one is most definitely off-topic, but you might find it interesting.

Last Sunday, I broke down and bought a non-3G iPad.  I just was too damn curious.  Walked into the Apple Store, played with it for 5 minutes, gave them my credit card, and walked out 15 minutes later. 

Brought it home, set it up, downloaded some interesting stuff, and had a blast.  Big geek fun.

I then went off to work for the week, and left it home.  And that's when things got interesting ...

The iPad App Store is open! Here are the best of the apps so far—the ones you'll actually want when you finally get your iPad.

This guide will be updated multiple times this weekend, since apps are still flowing in by the hundred. Also, check up on our app review marathon liveblog, running all day today.

You might notice a few things about these apps: A lot of them are iPhone carryovers, and a lot of them cost more than you might be used to in the App Store economy. Both are valid observations! But for a first batch, these apps do look rather spectacular.

The second, and perhaps most likely reason behind Apple's silence, is that the A4 just isn't anything to write home about—and on this second point, I actually know a thing or two. If Apple were to tell you what's in the A4, most of the focus would be on what the chip is not, rather than on what the iPad is.

Meet the A4

As I watched the videos and read the reports of the iPad in action at the launch event, I was thoroughly convinced that the device was built on the out-of-order Cortex A9, possibly even a dual-core version. But it turns out that the the A4 is a 1GHz custom SoC with a single Cortex A8 core and a PowerVR SGX GPU. The fact that A4 uses a single A8 core hasn't been made public, but I've heard from multiple sources who are certain for different reasons that this is indeed the case.

Apple's PR department must still have sore hands since the launch, from high-fiving each other. When was the last time the launch of a new computer made the front page of all the major newspapers - with a huge color photograph? (Answer: Never!)

“Please calm down. Breathe deeply. Anxiety is a normal part of the temporal displacement field. It will pass quickly. OK. OK? OK. Now: Hello. I am you, from the year 2010, two decades in the future.”

Seventy-five million devices later, it’s clear that this idea has resonated with users. And, like the Mac, the iPhone has encouraged other device makers to follow suit and introduce touchscreen smartphones of their own. But for Apple, the mobile phone market was never the ultimate goal: the iPhone and iPod touch were a virus of an idea, infecting all those users with a new way of doing things. The touchscreen interface was part of that idea, but it wasn’t the whole idea any more than the whole idea of the original iMac was that it was blue. All those competitors just slapping touchscreens on their phones were digging in the wrong place.

It's taken me a couple of days for me to understand the wet sickness I felt in response to all the post-iPad whining, until it finally came up in a sputtering lump: disgust.

The iPad isn't a threat to anything except the success of inferior products. And if anything's dystopian about the future it portends, it's an American copyright system that's been out of whack since 1996.

Mark Pilgrim, a man I don't know but can easily presume is my technical better many times over if only because he is employed by Google, said this in a piece called "Tinkerer's Sunset":

Look closely. What you see is the future of computing. I guarantee it.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010. A day to remember. That is the day that Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and showed the iPad to the world for the first time. A man who has the prescience of vision to sense when he's about to make a dent in the universe, Jobs chose a center for the arts as the venue for the iPad's unveiling. A telling choice. You see, it turns out that the arrival of forces which will affect paradigm shifts in the way we live our lives seem to have a knack for entering the world through houses of the arts. So it was at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts on January 24, 1984 when Steve Jobs unveiled the Macintosh [ video ], completely changing the interface between man and machine, turning computers from cold command lines into approachable assistants for everyone. Many in the tech industry consider that date to be the most important in Apple's history -- the day upon which Apple made its biggest contribution to the world.

And now we hit Phase Two of Rumored Apple Ta ... sorry, iPad hype: in which the world attempts to review something that won’t ship for at least two more months, and which only a few hundred people have ever actually held and used.

The iPad is too different, and the day is too early, to make any sort of call on the success or failure of this thing. At worst, Apple will be faulted for atypical conservatism. At best, the iPad will be likened to the first Mac, which combined hardware and UI elements that were familiar on their surface, but which had finally been combined in the right way to produce a satisfying stew that everybody else will leap to copy.

Wow, I’m seeing a lot of negative commentary on the new Apple iPad tablet from pundits all around the Web. People are already shouting that this will be a flop and that Apple have dropped the ball this time. A lot of criticisms: no USB, no multitasking, low memory, no Flash support, no camera, no full OS, and so on and on. Everyone seems to be missing the point completely.

I am personally really impressed with what Apple have delivered and I have absolutely no doubt it will be one of Apple’s best selling products. Let me tell you why.

Just one day after the unveiling of the iPad, Apple's long-rumored tablet has ruffled feathers and turned heads. With a familiar interface, Apple's momentum, iTunes integration, and a price that the even non-geek can easily fall in love with, it has all the makings of a hit. But deep inside lies something even more revolutionary.

At the heart of the iPad lies a tiny sliver of silicon. A game changer within a game changer. That's Apple's A4, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that reportedly combines a low-power CPU, a graphics processing unit (GPU), and other hardware, much of which is still confidential. What we do know is that it finds an almost ideal balance between battery life and speed, such that the iPad can animate and zip about at a pace that iPhone 3GS users could only dream of.

Say you’re Apple. It’s a few years ago. You make and sell computers.

You see the rise of web apps, and you notice people talking about how desktop apps are done. Desktop apps are done because, with web apps, people can login from anywhere, any machine, and get to their stuff. That’s cool, and you know it’s cool.

Apple introduced its newest product on Wednesday—the iPad—suggesting that it fits in a space between an smartphone and a laptop. Both of those products typically have an integrated camera, so many folks were left scratching their heads when the iPad had none. Evidence buried within the iPad SDK suggests that Apple was ready to include one, but we're wondering if its omission even matters to most consumers. Our feeling is that, despite the complaints, that lack of a camera won't affect the iPad's popularity or usability.