iPad Newbies: It's an iPad, Not a Big IPhone

Don't expect to get a lot done on your iPad 2 the first day. That's because you'll be too busy (and too excited) loading your new toy with great apps, music and movies. Yes, it will take hours.

But it could take even longer if you make the mistake of thinking about your iPad as merely a big version of the iPhone. Have a plan before you start clicking and syncing your iPad with your existing iPhone apps over iTunes.

If you're an iPhone owner and this is your first iPad, you'll inevitably make this mistake. The thinking goes that you've purchased a lot of iPhone apps, so you'll want to get them on the iPad. Or maybe you think you already know what works because the two devices handle the same functions, more or less.

Well, throw these thoughts out the window. Many tried-and-true iPhone apps have no place on the iPad.

The Great App Sync

I cluttered my first iPhone with apps during my initial excitement, only to delete them en masse later, so I planned to be a little smarter with the iPad.

But then I made the mistake of syncing my existing apps with the iPad, figuring I'd save some time. This turned out to be a time killer because I had to re-check all the apps on the App Store to see if there was an iPad-optimized version. This sent me down the road of deleting and purchasing and toggling with the App Store.

With the iPad, just start anew on the App Store and leave your existing apps behind. You can download some iPad apps you've purchased for the iPhone for free, others will charge for the iPad version.

A handful of apps, namely banking ones, aren't optimized for the iPad but deserve a place on it--after all, you don't want to get overdrawn. For the most part, though, you won't want to run a tiny iPhone app on an iPad that you just spent a few hundred dollars on.

iPad Apps vs. iPhone Apps

Also, the kind of apps you'll want on your iPad will vary greatly from the ones you already have on your iPhone.

Apps with true value that come from extreme portability, such as location-based search apps, or apps that provide quick information updates, such as weather apps, should stay on the iPhone--and off the iPad. I realized that I would never use some of my favorite iPhone apps on the iPad: Golfshot GPS, Siri, AroundMe, Shazam, and Jibbigo.

On the flip side, the iPhone's "whip-it-out" mobility is a handicap at a higher level of data consumption, while the iPad excels in this area. This means you'll want to employ a different data app strategy for the iPad.

For instance, most iPhone owners can't imagine life without the Facebook app. You can read status updates instantly. But you might not want the Facebook app for the iPad: Try Flipboard, which pulls and presents information feeds from various sources in a friendly magazine format. It's a much easier way to take in Facebook information.

My Flipboard has Facebook, Twitter, AllThingsD, National Geographic, San Francisco Chronicle, among others. I considered the CNN feed but felt that the CNN iPad app renders information and video better than on Flipboard, which is an exception.

Maybe iOS 5, expected to be announced June 6 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, will bring tabs to mobile Safari. Either way, I'm guessing that the iPad (and other tablets) are reducing the need for the development of mobile Web sites and perhaps bringing back the well-designed, full Web site.

With Flipboard, Instapaper and mobile Safari, I find that I don't need a lot of individual content apps on the iPad.

iPad: A Content-Creation Machine

Where the iPad really diverges from the iPhone is in the area of content-generation. As a tech reporter, I use the following iPad apps for work: IA Writer, QuickOffice, Dropbox, SoundNote, WordBook XL, as well as the iPhone app AP Style Book.

While some of these apps are on my iPhone, I hardly use them. I just can't imagine writing a story on the iPhone. On the iPad, I use them all the time.

I have an Apple Wireless Keyboard to go with the iPad, which makes typing and navigating around a document with the arrow keys just as easy as on a Mac. I also have the Apple Camera Connector to download and send photos. Now with the new iPhone hotspot feature, it's easy to file iPad-generated stories.

Fact is, the iPad and iPhone complement each other because they're used in vastly different ways--and this means the go-to apps must vary, too.

Source: www.pcworld.com

Nokia-Microsoft Talks on Schedule, Many Phones to Be Sold in 2012

Less than two months after Nokia made it official that it will manufacture only Windows Phone-powered smartphones, talks between the world's largest phone manufacturer and Microsoft are going according to schedule.

Kai Oistamo, Nokia's Head of Corporate Development, said that "negotiations have progressed very well" and that "they will be concluded well on schedule". Stephen Elop told the world back in February that it will take a couple of months to sign a deal with Microsoft and it looks like talks are going according to plan. As a fruit of negotiations, a large number of Nokia Windows Phones should be sold in 2012 but we get back to our obsessing question: will we see a Nokia Windows Phone this year?

Source: http://pocketnow.com

APPLE IPHONE 5 COMING EARLIER THAN EXPECTED – REPORT

While it might seem unlikely that Apple would roll out a new iPhone just a couple of weeks after its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, that’s exactly what one Korean website is saying will happen.

Apple fans got somber after we reported last week how the company is going to focus on software rather than hardware this year at WWDC, leaving many to wonder if we’ll see an iPhone 5 at all in 2011. But ET News of Korea says never fear, Apple will host a special event just a few weeks later where it will unveil an updated iPhone, continuing its tradition of updating iPhone hardware each year since the device’s original 2007 release.

If, as expected, we don’t see a new iPhone at WWDC, this is only the beginning of a ton of speculation about an iPhone 5 leading up to its release. Apple, of course, had no comment on the report.

Whether or not this rumor pans out, there’s little doubt that Apple could use a boost this summer. The Android platform is now topping just about every smartphone market-share chart, and Apple risks falling farther behind if it waits another whole year before rolling out the iPhone 5.

Source: www.channelpartnersonline.com

Chrome and Blackberry most HTML5 compatible browsers

All the browsers of today tout their support for HTML5. The latest offering from Microsoft, Internet Explorer 9, is beating the chests in its HTML5 support and the beauty it brings to the web. So does the recently released Firefox 4 with it’s web o wonder. All these browsers do certain tasks very well. But, where do they actually stand in their all-round support for the HTML5 standard.

We checked for ourselves with the tests at HTML5Test.com and the results are posted below. In desktop browsers, we consider the current release of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. For mobile browsers, iOS, Android, Blackberry and Maemo were chosen.

The Desktop browser comparison is posted below:

Chrome is the clear winner here, followed by Firefox and Opera. As you can see IE9 has a lot of work to do. In fact IE9′s HTML5 score is below that of all the mobile browsers considered below. We also saw how well the available betas of these browsers are faring and looks like Safari has put in a lot of work making it claim the number 2 position after Chrome.

The mobile browsers comparison is posted below:

Surprisingly the leader is blackberry. It’s score is comparable with desktop browsers. iOS Safari follows in with number 2 position. I am confused as to why Google has not merged the Android browser and Chrome source code. It might be good for branding purposes also. Currently manufacturers wrongly brand the Android browser as Chrome Lite, but we can’t blame them for this. Android browser is at third spot followed by Maemo at fourth place.

So now you know whether to believe the marketing hype of the companies like Microsoft and Apple when they talk about HTML5. But, at least the progress made is very encouraging. Go browsers go!

Source: www.html5trends.com

Android takes lead in US smartphone market

Phones based on Google's mobile software have for months outsold Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry. Now, by one take, they dominate the installed base as well.

The latest figures from market tracker Comscore, for the three months ending February 28, show that Google's Android mobile operating system now runs approximately one-third of smartphone devices in the US.

Comscore extrapolates marketshare figures by determining the platorm used by visitors to major websites.

Apple grew its share marginally (the company's total does not include iPads or the iPod Touch).

Google's growth, therefore, appears to be coming largely at the expense of BlackBerry manufacturer RIM, Microsoft, and Palm (now owned by HP), which saw market share percentage point losses of 4.6 percent, 1.3 percent, and 1.1 percent, respectively.

Surveys by Nielsen and others have shown Google Android devices (made by HTC, LG, Huawei, Motorola, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson and others) leading the pack in terms of new sales. Comscore's survey is one of the first to give Android smartphones a lead in terms of overall installed base.

The US has become the trend-setting smartphone market, so the figures seem good news for Telecom, which has made a big bet on Android.

Source: www.nbr.co.nz