Tag Archives | Apple iPad

Atomic Web: A Better iPad Browser

Posted by Jared Newman on April 18, 2010 at 7:12 pm

After reading about Atomic Web for the iPad a few days ago on Gizmodo, I surrendered $1 to the App Store and gave it a try. Now, I’ve happily banished Safari to the farthest reaches of my home screen, as this browser alternative looks and feels like Safari but with better features.

Atomic Web’s main lure is tabbed browsing. On the iPhone, I never had much use for tabs, because I don’t frequently read on the small screen, and therefore don’t get into the routine of opening background windows while scanning for interesting articles. On the iPad’s big screen, bouncing between pages is essential.

Atomic Web handles tabs like a desktop browser, displaying them directly underneath the address bar. When you press and hold on a link, a contextual menu allows you to open the page in a foreground or background tab. Switching between tabs is instantaneous — a huge relief given that Safari sometimes has to reload pages if you stray for too long.

Tabbed browsing isn’t Atomic Web’s only advantage. There’s also full screen browsing, find in page, multi-touch shortcuts (two-finger swipes with customizable actions), support for a couple dozen search tools, private mode, an ad blocker and customizable colors. It also comes with some cool bookmarklets — special functions that masquerade as bookmarks — including quick access to Google Translate.

I only have one complaint with Atomic Web: When you quit the browser, it has to reload all your pages again next time you start up, even if you set the browser to preserve all open tabs after quitting.

My other gripe with the browser isn’t Atomic Web’s fault, and speaks to a larger issue with the iPad: You can’t set Atomic Web or any other alternative browser as your default. Safari is part of the OS’s core, so you can’t make Web apps open in Atomic Web from the home screen, and other programs, such as TweetDeck, automatically launch Safari when you want to view something in a proper browser. The best you can do is install a bookmarklet in Safari that jumps to Atomic Web with your current Web page, but it’s one extra step.

That those drawbacks haven’t deterred me from forgetting Safari exists is a testament to how much Atomic Web deserves its $1 asking price.

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The T-Grid: Handheld PC Pro vs. the iPad

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 12, 2010 at 2:58 am

When you compare the iPad to gizmos past, the most obvious frame of reference is a multitude of unsuccessful tablets. But as I’ve been using my iPad over the past week, it’s reminded me even more of another much-hyped platform which landed with a thud: Microsoft’s Handheld PC Pro–code-named “Jupiter”–which, like the iPad, put a mobile OS (Windows CE 2.11 in this case) inside a device that looked like a small personal touchscreen computer.

Let’s compare the iPad against an especially iPaddish Handheld PC, Sharp’s Mobilon Pro, a convertible model that could be used in notebook- or tablet-like configurations.

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450,000 iPads Sold

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 8, 2010 at 10:08 am

Steve Jobs has just took the stage at Cupertino for the iPhone OS 4.0 event and starts it off with iPad news: 450,000 have been sold to date. Jobs says Best Buy is out of stock, and  that Apple is “making them as fast as we can.” A total of 600,000 iBooks have been downloaded to date, along with 3.5 million applications. Jobs reports that some 3,500 applications are now available that have been optimized for use on the device.

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Most iPad Apps Are Games, But Why?

Posted by Jared Newman on April 7, 2010 at 5:08 pm

Three days after the launch of Apple’s iPad, video games are dominating the app landscape, according to analytics company Distimo (via TechCrunch).

Distimo counted 2,385 iPad-specific apps as of April 6, and 833 of them were games. The closest behind were entertainment apps, with 260 specifically for the iPad. Games account for roughly a third of all iPad apps, compared to almost 60 percent on the iPhone.

It makes sense that games account for fewer total apps on the iPad than the iPhone, but the discrepancy is still shocking given what Apple tells us about the applications people are downloading. Looking at current top 10 charts on the iPad, there are only three games among the most downloaded paid apps, and none among the most downloaded free apps. For all the games in the iPad App Store, few are making a dent in overall sales, especially compared to the iPhone, on which games account for eight of the top 10 paid apps and seven of the top 10 free apps.

What are people downloading the most on the iPad? Productivity tools like Pages and GoodReader, informational apps such as The Weather Channel and USA Today, and entertainment portals such as iBooks, Netflix and the ABC Player. From the initial charts, it seems that people are not nearly as interested in playing games on the iPad as they were on the iPhone. Anecdotally, I’m not. I’m still waiting for a killer music creation app and a blogging tool that actually works.

Of course, things can change. The top download charts could eventually list more games as they flood the App Store — especially if developers get desperate and start slashing prices. As a gamer, I certainly wouldn’t complain, but I also hope developers see the need for more productivity, information and content apps, and fill it.

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Is It Going to be iPad Singular, or iPads Plural?

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 7, 2010 at 9:57 am

The one place where the JooJoo has an obvious advantage over the iPad–for some people–is in screen real estate. It’s got a 12-inch display, versus the 9.7-incher on the iPad. So much else is so wrong with the JooJoo that a roomy screen can’t begin to compensate. But it got me thinking: Do we need iPads in different sizes and form factors? And could Apple already be thinking about the iPad as the beginning of a line of devices rather than a one-size-fits-all gadget?

It’s not surprising that the iPhone only comes in one form factor. Rumors about an iPhone Mini have been floating out there for eons, but with the iPhone 3G priced at $99, there may not be a slot for it Apple’s lineup. And a larger iPhone might well be too…large.

But the basic ideas behind the iPad are different, and more fungible. Some people might want an iPad that’s a bit smaller. Some might prefer one that’s a lot bigger. You’re going to be able to buy a keyboard dock that turns the iPad into a pseudodesktop, but maybe some folks would buy a real iPad desktop with a big screen. Or one (dare I say it?) in a clamshell case with a physical keyboard. (Okay, I don’t see Apple ever making a clamshell iPad–but if it did, there are people who’d buy one.)

Yes, yes–you don’t want a computer based on the iPad’s version of iPhone OS as your only desktop…or maybe at all just yet. But if the iPhone OS keeps improving at the same rate it has since Apple unveiled it a little over three years ago, there’s no reason why it might not be a plausible general-purpose operating system, capable of powering general-purpose computers. I don’t think it’s completely nuts to wonder if it’ll become Apple’s primary OS, available on devices of all sorts and sizes, while the Mac sticks around as a legacy item.

And even if most of this doesn’t happen, I wonder if Apple will make iPads in another size or two. Me, I might be interested in a JooJoo-sized version.

Here’s a crude, ugly mockup of an iPad Desk:


Does any of this make any sense at all, or am I suffering from a temporary bout of Irrational iPad Exuberance?

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iPad iWork File Frustrations

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 6, 2010 at 11:04 am

I keep saying that the single most interesting thing about the iPad is the touch-centric interface that Apple gave its iWork word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tool. But judging from the experiences folks are having using iPad iWork with OS X iWork, there’s clearly a big opportunity for companies like DataViz and Quickoffice to come up with iPad suites that focus on desktop file compatibility above all else.

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25 Features iPhone OS Still Needs (Still!)

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 6, 2010 at 10:48 am

When Apple started inviting journalists to a press event this Thursday to discuss the future of the iPhone OS, I made a mental note to publish a list of features I’d like to see. Then I remembered: I already composed a wish list back in June of last year, on the day iPhone OS 3.0 was released. It’s not precisely the inventory of desires I’d come up with today, after spending many months with an iPhone 3GS and trying out competitors such as the Droid. And if I were asking for new iPhone OS features today, I’d be just as likely to request ones that were iPad-related.

Overall, though, my iPhone OS requests from last June are a lot like the ones I still have. So (after the jump) here’s my original story, with “2010 thoughts” embedded where appropriate. After Thursday’s news, I’ll take a look at how closely Apple’s list of Necessary iPhone OS Improvements mirrored mine.

What would you like to see in iPhone OS 4.0 and beyond?
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