iPad 3 Will Have a Retina Display: Confirmed!

With the March 7 release of the iPad 3 approaching rapidly, many pictures of the iPad 3's display have showed up on the web. They were claimed to be a 2048x1536 retina display, but none of the pictures could confirm their resolution, until now.

MacRumors recently examined an iPad 3 display under a microscope and compared it to an iPad 2. The displays looked the same to the naked eye, but the results they got confirmed that the iPad 3 will have a retina display.

Since we only had a raw iPad 3 display with no method to power it, taking high quality photos of the pixels was difficult. Still, even with the relatively poor lighting, you can easily make out the pixels on each display (made up of red, green and blue elements). We highlighted a cluster of 4 pixels (2x2) from the iPad 2 to compare it to the same area on the iPad 3. On the iPad 3, the same cluster was occupied by 16 pixels (4x4) -- exactly twice the resolution in each direction. 

Could the iPad 3 Sport an 8 MP Camera?

NextMedia recently received a photo from "channeled sources" of the iPad 3's back shell. Taking a close look at the picture can help reveal what might be included in the next iPad 3.

The first thing most people notice is that the iPad's shell is tapered much more gradually, which likely will result in a more smooth and sleek feel. Interestingly, Apple made the exact opposite change a few years back when they changed the iPhone 4's body to look more boxy, as opposed to the curve on the edges of the iPhone 3GS.

But, the more exciting aspect of the picture is about the camera. The position of the camera has only shifted a tiny bit to the right, but look at its size difference as compared to the iPad 2. It's significantly larger. This goes along with a rumor that the iPad 3 might sport a 8 MP camera.

The story of the iPad's camera goes back a long way. After the hype of the first iPad's release two years back, many people were disappointed not to see a camera in the front or the back. The iPad 2 came out a year later with a camera, but the resolution was so awful Apple wouldn't disclose it's exact quality. The back camera turned out to have only 1 MP quality, and the front camera 0.3 MP. Some people wanted better quality, but others were satisfied because tablets aren't usually the primary device used to take pictures and videos. But, Apple has been adamantly increasing quality on the iPhone camera despite similar ideas. The iPhone 3GS saw an increase to 3 MP, the iPhone 4 up to 5 MP, and finally up to 8 MP with the 4S.

Yet, camera technology is increasing, and my feelings are that because it is now possible to pack very high-quality cameras into very tight spaces, Apple should feel free to increase the quality of the iPad's camera.

Interactive Textbooks are now Available in iBooks 2

Apple's most amazing new technology introduced at their education media event was probably iBooks 2. This app, available as a free update to iBooks, features interactive textbooks.

As you flip through the new textbooks with multitouch, you'll be able to tap on pictures with interactive captions, view diagrams, or even play full-screen videos. You can also highlight text with your finger, or tap on any word to get its definition. Most of these textbooks will cost $14.99 or less.

While this new technology may be mindblowing, some people aren't sure if the iPad really should be used in the classroom. Matt Burns thinks that iPads would harm kids' education, just as the pocket calculator means kids can't do mental math as well.

"Kids are now taught to pass tests. Knowledge is externalized, stored on some Wikipedia server or graphing calculator until needed. Learning is still prevalent in schools, but the storage of facts and thoughts is not. Digital textbooks will only further this problem. Just click on a word to get its definition, says Apple."

 In addition to this, Burns believes the iPad will be a major distraction for kids. However, Greg Kumparak believes that the iPad has the potential to become a very useful learning tool for students.

"I honestly believe it’s entirely possible — nay, crucial — to teach a kid to live both with and without technology. Teach and test them on how to do it the hard way (and more importantly, to understand the underlying concepts)… then drive it in with technology. If you instill a sense of pride in doing things with your very own brain, perhaps all that junk won’t fly out the window as soon as the diploma is signed. It’s all about balance."

Both of these cases present believable ideas, but I think the only way we'll know how beneficial Apple's new technology really is is when it's actually tried. I have a feeling however, that it'll help some students and harm others. The students that actually want to learn and become smarter will be able to utilize the iPads technology well, while the kids that only go to school because they have to will use the iPads as just another distraction.

iPad 3 to Arrive In March with LTE, Quad-Core Processor, and Retina Display?

A series of reports from rather reliable sources such as Bloomberg and Macotakara claims Apple's manufacturing partners are working 24 hours a day so that Apple will be able to launch the iPad 3 in March. Not only do the reports claim that the device will sport a retina display that will make some graphics look as clear as printed copies (we're almost sure of this because of how many reports it's been in), they claim that a quad-core processor will be used to speed up the iPad 3 dramatically. Also, a new graphics processor will be so quick that videos will begin to play almost instantly.

The only thing the reports can't seem to agree on is the form factor. Some say that Apple is adopting Sharp's IGZO technology to allow for a thinner iPad, while others say Apple has turned down Sharp's offer, and will be sacrificing a little thickness in order to use high resolution IPS displays from Samsung and LG.

Arguably the most exciting piece of information is that Apple will be bringing LTE to the iPad 3. Apple will bring this technology to the iPad before the iPhone because the iPad has a bigger battery, so it can maintain a longer battery life while LTE is in use.

Jailbreak Lets You Get Siri on Any iDevice - Legally!

Siri on an iPad

 Many people are disappointed that Siri only runs on the iPhone 4S. It's another one of Apple's nasty tricks; just like how they won't let you upgrade devices to the current iOS build if they're too old. Sure, the iPad 3 and the next iPod Touch will both come with Siri, but some of us don't have the patience to wait, or the money to buy a shiny new iDevice. Or both. So don't worry folks; just as you can jailbreak an old iDevice to get the latest iOS build, you can jailbreak any iDevice running iOS 5 to get Siri.

Grant Paul, Steven Troughton-Smith, and Ryan Petich, three well-known iOS hackers, are proud to announce that their new jailbreak, Spire, lets you get Siri on any iDevice running iOS 5. You may know of other jailbreaks that came out prior to this one that could do the same thing. But, the reason why this one is so special is that it is legal. If you're jealous of Siri, all you have to do is go on Cydia now, download the installer, and after you put it on your iDevice you'll just have to download Siri from Apple and then set up a proxy.

New Trick Fixes Unresponsive Home Buttons on iOS Devices

A new three step trick has been discovered that can recalibrate your home button on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to make it more responsive. So, if your home button isn't responding well, try using this easy trick:

1. Open the Weather app or the Stocks app.
2. Hold down the sleep/wake button until you see a slider at the top of the screen saying "slide to power off"
3. Release the power button, then hold down the home button until the slider disappears and the app you are running force quits.

While nobody knows why this trick works, it is quite helpful because the home button on iOS devices has been known to lag or become unresponsive after a lot of use.

92% of Mobile Shopping is Done on iOS Devices

A new study about mobile shopping gives us a lot of new, and unexpected data. One statistic is that 92% of mobile purchases were from iOS devices. This is very peculiar, considering that more Android phones have been sold than iOS phones, so you would expect less than 50% of mobile purchases to be from the iPhone. I think this could be a result of the wider selection of shopping apps for the iPhone, or the smooth, intuitive interface that makes buying things on a mobile device, which rarely happened in past years, feel more comfortable.

Another statistic of particular interest to me is that iOS devices were used to purchase more expensive things on average. The average price of a purchase from an iOS device was $123, as compared to $101 from an Android device and only $87 from a desktop computer. This seems odd to me because it seems as if a desktop would be used to purchase more expensive things so that you can find the best price more easily and make sure you purchase the right thing with the right equipment. One possible idea is that a desktop is better at tabbed browsing, so you feel more free to go on other sites and look for a lower price on the item you plan to buy.

"The numbers across our retailing sites partners sites demonstrate just how powerful the iOS platform is enabling mobile web shopping and, while still below 5% in total conversion, mobile traffic is doubling in eight months is a trend we only see accelerating."

Tech n' Cars is also seeing more mobile views, with 351 views from a mobile device so far. While this only makes up 8% of the total 4,209 views, the number of mobile views per month is constantly increasing. And, just as with the study, 97% of our mobile views are from iOS devices.

Amazon's Kindle Fire starting to burn up iPad 2!

When the iPad hit the market, it was quite revolutionary. Everybody was amazed by the new type of sleek, portable, and fun computer; the tablet. All the big technology companies, like Sony, Dell, HP, and Motorola saw opportunity in this tablet, yet somehow, all of their attempts at a tablet failed.

Some say the attempts failed because the companies couldn't make a tablet as sleek as the iPad. Some say the iPad had far more available apps than any of their tablets. But for whatever the reason, none of the companies ever had any more than 1% of consumers in the market for a tablet wanting to purchase theirs.  Even Samsung's Galaxy Tab only had 4% of consumers choosing their tablet. Yes, that's just how big Apple's monopoly on the tablet line is.

But, an unexpected competitor has made a whopping 22% of tablet shoppers choose their tablet: Amazon.

In a recent study with people who are interested in buying a tablet, 68% favored the iPad, 22% favored the Kindle Fire, and 4% favored the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

"The launch of the Amazon Kindle Fire represents a shot across the bow at Apple, who until now has almost completely dominated the tablet space," said ChangeWave, the company who ran the survey.


Apple's iPad 3 could make Apple reassume their monopoly, but for now, Apple's competitor has finally arrived. Finally.

iPhone 5, iPad 3 Release Dates and Rumors!

Yes, the iPhone 4S just came out and the iPad 2's sales aren't declining any time soon, but we're already talking next generation here at Tech n' Cars. That's because iLounge says its "most reliable source" has given the website some very interesting facts about the next generation iDevices.

iPhone 5: Some say the iPhone 4S was a disappointment because it didn't include many of the features it was rumored to have. Well, don't worry folks; you'll see most of these features in the iPhone 5. One feature that we're pretty sure the iPhone 5 will have is the 4" screen and thinner bezel that the iPhone 4S was supposed to have. While supporting the larger screen, the iPhone's length will only increase by 8mm. And don't worry; this iPhone's coming quick; (no, not another 1 year 4 month delay that we saw with the iPhone 4S update) Apple is rumored to be launching the iPhone 5 in June or July 2012, which would be only 8 or 9 months after the iPhone 4S.

iPad 3: It doesn't look like we'll be getting that "iPad 2 Plus" by the end of the year that some earlier rumors spoke of, but we should be getting a full-blown iPad 3 in March 2012, featuring a retina display. Apple will use a dual light bar system for the higher quality display, and this will make the new iPad 8% thicker than the iPad 2.

More Fuel Added to the Kindle Fire

Next week, we'll get to see if the $200 Kindle Fire really will be a match for Apple's iPad. A price $300 lower already gives it a pretty good advantage, but now Amazon has announced that they've got even more coming.

First, they announced that "several thousand" apps will be available on the Kindle Fire, including Facebook and even Hulu. That doesn't sound like it have as many apps as the iPad (over 100,000), but it's quite a start anyway

Second, they said that over 400 magazines will be coming to the Kindle Fire; all in full color! Some of the magazines include The New Yorker, Reader's Digest, and Us Weekly.

Third, they announced that interactive books will soon be coming to the Kindle Fire. These interactive books will have built in audio and even video. That sure puts paper to shame.

The iPad 2 doesn't have a retina display, but the iPad 3 will!

A lot of people have been asking me either "Does the iPad 2 have a retina after all?", "Why doesn't the iPad 2 have a retina display?" or, "So will the iPad 3 have a retina display?". The answer is that though the iPad 2 maintained the iPad 1's 160 ppi display, the iPad 3 will have a retina display. Apple wanted to give the iPad 2 a retina display, as you can see from the picture above of their plans to give the iPad 2 4x the resoloution (a retina display). However, they were low on supplies for this.

iOS 5 to release in September alongside iPad 3?

I know, the first source told me that iOS 5 was being released in early April. That, according to two other reliable sources, is very unlikely to happen. Instead, iOS 5 will be released in September. iOS 5 will bring cloud based movies, photos, and music. We hear it will be a "big revamp." There's a reason why Apple didn't talk at all about iOS 5 on March 2nd when they released the iPad 2... because it isn't coming out any time soon! Apparently, the iPad 3 (I know, the iPad 2 was released but 16 days ago, and we're already talking iPad 3!) will be released alongside iOS 5. We don't know much about the iPad 3 yet except that it will have a retina display.

Data for iPhone, iPad, and Mac App Stores; Average Mac app is 7x as much as average iPhone app, 3x as much as average iPad app!

Now that there are apps for three different devices- iPhone and iPod Touch, iPad, and Mac- we can compare the prices of these apps against each other. This concludes that Mac apps are very pricey compared to iPhone and iPad apps; in fact, they are cost 7x as much as iPhone apps and 3x as much as iPad apps. Studies also show that 11% of Mac apps are free, compared to 33% of iPhone apps.

The Mac App Store is also not as popular as other app stores. 2 months since launch, it has 2,225 apps. 2 months after the launch of the iPad, there were 8,099 apps avaliable. Yet more studies have calculated the average price of apps for all three devices. These are $1.57 for iPhone, $4.19 for iPad, and $11.21 for Mac.

I have to say, however, that these prices will probably drop. Designers making the first apps to appear on the Mac App Store probably thought that they could bump up the price a little, as they didn't have as much competition. Now that the number of apps should soon hit 4,000, designers will have to reduce the price of their apps. However, Mac software is far more complicated than iPhone software, so expect average prices to stay above $8.

70% of people waiting in line for iPad 2 own iPad 1!

Mobclix has discovered that 70% of people waiting in line to purchase an iPad 2 at the Apple Store already own the first iPad! My guess is that these people loved their iPad so much that they are getting the iPad 2. I, on the other hand, do not recommend spending $500 on two cameras, speed, and a proximity sensor if you already own an iPad 1.

People find Apple Stores too long a wait, buy iPad 2 on eBay for $4,000!

People are so impatient to get an iPad 2 that they are finding it too long a wait to purchase an iPad 2 at an Apple Store, and buying them for up to $4,000 on eBay! I knew the iPad 2 was popular, but even I wouldn't buy one for $4,000, when I could get the same 64GB iPad for $700 with a little bit of wait... Here's an iPad 2 that was sold on eBay (Note, this iPad was sold later than this screenshot was taken):

Google makes a TV app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad!

In December, Google made a Google TV remote app for Android. Now, Google has finally made one for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad! It has all the features found on Android including Voice Search except that it won't let you share web pages from your iOS device to your TV. If you've got a Google TV and iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, I recommend grabbing the free app from the App Store.

iPad 2 specs determined!

Anandtech has concluded that the iPad 2's GPU (graphics processing unit) is the PowerVR SGX543MP2 dual-core GPU. This GPU has more than 2x the computing horsepower of the iPad 1's, two cores instead of one, and 4x as many pipes. Apple claims that the iPad 2 has 9x better graphics performance than its predecessor, which doesn't seem unreasonable considering these findings. It has also been found that the iPad 2's Cortex A9 (dubbed the Apple A5) processor runs at 900MHz, close to Apple's claimed 1GHz (1000MHz)

Get every March Madness game on your PC or iOS device- free!

If you're one of the many Tech n' Cars readers who has caught March Madness, you'd probably like to keep up your Tech Madness. Well, CBS and Turner Sprts are letting you keep up both at the same time, by streaming every March Madness gave to PCs, iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads... for free! (Sorry, Android phone owners, only iOS) The free iOS apps will hit the App Store March 10th.

The iPad 2 is released; A5 processor, 2 cameras, Smart Cover, iOS 4.3.....!

This is completely thrilling. Apple released the iPad 2! It will be avaliable starting March 11. What will this new iPad do? Here's the full scoop:

First off, the iPad 2 has the all-new A5 processor. This a has two cores, which is great for multitasking, and runs at a speedy 1GHz. It also has 9 times the graphics performance of the A4. Despite this, it maitains a 10-hour battery life. Though Apple did not release a 7" iPad, they did make the iPad 2 a lot more portable. It is 33% thinner and 15% lighter than the previous iPad. It has two cameras; one that faces forward for FaceTime video calling to iPhone 4s, new iPod Touches, iPad 2s, or Macs. The rear-facing camera can record 720p HD video at 30 fps. This iPad also has PhotoBooth to edit your photos, or just make them plain funky.

One of the most important new things for the iPad 2 is the smart cover. This cover comes in 10 colors, and magnetically attaches to the iPad 2. It can fold down for typing, or fold up as a stand. When you remove the Smart Cover, the iPad turns on. When you close it, the iPad turns off.

This iPad will run on iOS 4.3. iOS 4.3 will be avaliable for the AT&T iPhone, the iPad 2, the iPod Touch 3, and the iPod Touch 4. That's right; no iOS 4.3 for the Verizon iPhone or the iPad 1! And though a white iPhone has yet to come, the iPad 2 is avaliable in black or white.

Confirmed: iPad 2 will be Released March 2nd!

That's right; the iPad 2 with its retina display, front and rear cameras, SIM card slot, MiniDisplayPort, and probably more that hasn't been leaked will be coming out! Apple has begun sending invites for a March 2nd event! It is almost certain that the iPad 2 will be released at this event, as the picture shown above folds down to show an iPad. Other things may be previewed or introduced as well. Some people expect Apple to preview iOS 5 at the event. The event will be on Wednesday, March 2nd at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (12:00 Eastern Time), at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.