Top 8 iPad Apps

So you just got your fancy iPad, what are you doing with it? are you just browsing the web with the flashless browser? here are some apps that I think should cater all tastes.

AirVideo

$2.99

This is by far the best app you can get for your iPad, being able to stream all your video files via the internet to your iPad no matter what format it is is just great for anybody with any kind of a video collection. It does live conversion on the fly and  its pretty quick. and its just amazing on a local network.

Zinio

Free

Do you read magazines? I’ve been using Zinio on my PC for more than 2 years now, and I was disappointed with their iPhone release a few months back but man is the new iPad version is just awesome. It has a very good variety of magazines and the annual subscription prices are just too compelling.

Offline Pages

Free

This app lets you store a full webpage wth its formatting for offline viewing it later. This is great especially that this version of the iPad is wifi only, and this will really helpful when you are an a flight. its better than RSS reader in my opinion but needs a little bit more work.

LogMeIn

$29.99

I’ve talked about logmein before, its a remote desktop controlling app. the free desktop version is just so compelling. I know $30 seems much but its the best remote desktop app there is I think. and it was an easy decision because I already purchased the iPhone version.

Evernote

Free

This is the might not the best note taking app on the iPad but the ability to sync your notes to multiple platforms make this the most efficient one. I’ve got this setup on my Desktop PC, desktop Mac, Macbook pro, My windows laptop, my 2 Android phones , my iPhone and now my iPad. When I take a note on any platform it will be synced to my other devices automatically. Just great.

SoundHound

$4.99

This is a very good app, its an upgrade to Shazam, in addition to the ability to recognize songs via the iPad built-in microphone, it can  be integrated to your iPad music library and search for music lyrics, videos, artist bio and discography.

GoodReader

$0.99

This is a very nifty little piece of software, it gives you the ability to transfer file wirelessly to from your PC to your iPad and it has a built-in browser that you can download files in which is also great.

Notable Mentions:

NewsRack, Delivery Status, Kindle, IMDB, PenUltimate, Camera For iPad, Weather HD and Notes.

For more app considerations, check out Marzouq’s post.

Apple’s New iPhone Revealed!!! *UPDATED*

Gizmodo seems that they got there hands on a new iPhone (4G/HD) prototype and pimping it for all of us to see. and this is what they found:

What’s new

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery.

Full article here

UPDATE:

Seems that Apple have contacted Gizmodo and asked for their device back, so I guess this seals the deal and confirms that this *IS* an Apple device. Final version or prototype? we have to wait and see.

Link

Android vs iPhone

iPhone OS 4.0 Breakdown – Front Facing Camera Coming to new iPhone?!

Apple announced the iPhone OS 4.0 yesterday with a handful of new features, one of the features that they announced is a feature that was requested ever since the iphone got released back in 2007, Multitasking. and also a few other additions to the OS that are more than welcome.

Apple’s version of multitasking is very impressive. Its not your current version of multitasking and its not “true” multitasking, when you exit an app its no longer running in the background but rather is in a suspended state ala Windows Phone 7, but what Apple did is very clever, new API’s are available that gives 3rd party developers access to certain processes to accomplish “multitasking”. Those services are:

• Background Audio
• Voice Over IP
• Background Location
• Push Notifications
• Local Notifications
• Task Completion
• Fast App Switching

So its not true multitasking but should cover most of the regular user’s need.

More details after the break

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The iPad Review

After using the iPad for 5 days I think I have a very good idea on the device and can really give my opinion on it.

Hardware

The iPad design is beautiful and minimalistic. its just like a large iPod Touch (you are going to here this a lot in this review, why? because its true) with metal casing.  the screen is great 9.7” LED with IPS technology that has a 1024×768 resolution  and a little too big black bezel. Home button at the bottom of the screen a volume control on the right side, also a screen rotation lock switch and the usual power button.

I was a little disappointed with the speaker a bit, its not very low but its only on one side witch make the sound sometimes low especially if you are trying to share the screen with someone.

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iPad Arabic Support – UPDATED

I’ve been asked this questions a few times via comments, twitter and email. so I thought I might as well post about it.

As you can see from the image above, a screenshot of our friend Frankom’s blog, The iPad can handle arabic text, it reads it easily. I had some formatting issues with arabic PDF files like Al-Qabas and Al-Watan news papers.

But there is no arabic keyboard, so there is no way of inputting arabic text.

Hope this clears a few issues.

UPDATE:

Just tried the arabic keyboard app that Khalid suggested, its a standalone app the you have to input text and then copy/past it to where you want, wether it being notes WordPress or whatever. It has a email icon that will popup the keyboard on the email interface/app.

But its not very useful, especially if you fast type. Every time you hit a letter with more than one variation you get a popup giving you a choice of letters. Let me be clear once you just press a letter (not the default press and hold that the iPhone uses) so fast typing is out of the question as 10 out of the 29 letters on the keyboard have more than one variation.

For people looking for an arabic keyboard, I suggest holding off and see what iPhone OS 4.0 has to offer.

2 Major Announcements Within A Week

Both Apple and Microsoft are holding press conferences/events within a week. Apple event will be on April 8th and will be showcasing their new iPhone OS 4.0. There are no confirmed details on what might the new OS actually have in store for us but rumors consist of:

• Bigger Screen
• Higher Screen Resolution
• Front-Facing Camera
• Multi-Tasking
• Better Notifications
• A Useful Home Screen
• Might Have The New A4 CPU

As for Microsoft its not that simple, it will be held on April 12th and nobody knows what exactly the event will be about. its just speculation now. it could be:

• Project Pink (the long rumored phone project ever since Microsoft acquired Danger-The makers of the Sidekick).
• More Windows Phone 7 news (They officially removed the “Series” part)
• Zune news – really hope not
• Xbox news – The green theme suggests that. (Link)
• Courier Announcement – everybody is really hoping for that one, have you seen the Courier videos??

iPad – First Impressions

After posting the first iPad pic in Kuwait and first unboxing in Kuwait now its time to talk about the device, here are my first impressions.

Activating the device was a breeze (I have a US based account (Mark wrote a work around if you have a Kuwaiti account). FIrst thing I noticed how fast and responsive the device is, I mean its blazing fast. Loving the new Apple CPU.

The browser shows the full web pages and not the mobile ones, as seen from the pic above. Didn’t expect that as it ran the same webkit browser that the iPhone has, or so I thought.

The screen in nice, nothing super amazing . its large (bigger is better here) and some apps make use of the extra real estate.

A big letdown is not being able to charge the device via USB unless you’ve got a new mac. If you are a windows user you have to hunt down a wall socket to recharge.

The iBooks app is downloaded separately for free, after doing so you get a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh for free.

I’ll be doing a review and should be up soon. If you have any question please do so in the comments.

iPad Unboxing

Just finished unboxing my iPad and here’s a bunch of pictures:

A ton more pictures after the break, click below……..

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Guess Who’s Got An iPad?!

I just received the newly released iPad in my hands. stay tuned for more pics.