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Apple announced their long-awaited tablet today, the iPad. You can get details on the Apple iPad here.
There was no iPhone OS upgrade announcement today, however, as many expected there to be. That said, the iPad clearly runs a variant of the iPhone OS, so iPhone OS 4.0 news should be coming shortly.
The iPad will begin shipping in late March and starts at $499 with 16GB of flash storage and no built-in 3G wireless.
There are at least a few iPhone users out there who use a Mac (okay, maybe more than a few). And if you’re a Mac user who needs to be able to run Windows, and if you prefer virtualization to Boot Camp, we have good news: Parallels Desktop 5 is now available.
The new version of Parallels is fully Snow Leopard and Windows 7 (32 and 64-bit) compatible and now allows you to run Windows 7 with Aero. The company claims version 5 “is up to 300% faster for virtual machine operations” than version 4, and “22% faster than the nearest Windows-on-Mac competitor.”
“There are more than 70 new features in Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac, many of which give users the flexibility to work in the way they want. Users can choose how much or little Windows they want to see, from running Windows in Full Screen mode where Windows completely covers the Mac user interface to the new Crystal view mode which makes Windows completely disappear. Users can even get a Mac-like experience in their Windows applications, using the intuitive Apple Trackpad Gestures technology to pinch, swipe, and rotate as they do in Mac applications.”
Today Apple announced its 3rd Generation iPod shuffle. The new shuffle has been redesigned and now lacks hardware playback control on the main device body, although there is a single switch for shuffle, repeat and off. The clip is still there, too, so you can easily wear your iPod shuffle while you’re on the go.
Control of the 3G iPod shuffle is relegated to the earbud cord, which has a new control node for play, pause, skip, playlist selection and volume. The new VoiceOver feature, which speaks track, artist and playlist information, is also activated by using this control. The node’s single button performs multiple actions depending on the number and duration of presses. Fortunately, there are dedicated up and down volume control buttons.
We’re happy to see that the new shuffle includes playlist support, but the single-button with the voice prompt control system seems like a lot of hoops to jump through to take the place of a simple display. But, if you’re the type of person who just wants music and doesn’t much care about listening to a particular track at a particular time, the new shuffle should fit you just fine.
The 3G iPod shuffle is available today at the Apple Store in either silver or black and comes in one capacity, 4GB, which holds about 1000 songs. The MSRP is $79.
The first Android-powered smartphone is now a reality. The long-awaited T-Mobile G1 was made official this morning, giving us our up close look at an Android handset.
The T-Mobile G1 is built by HTC (it’s the HTC Dream) and is designed as a direct assault on Apple’s iPhone. Features include a HVGA touchscreen display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (without A2DP stereo support), UMTS/HSDPA wireless broadband, a 3MP camera, GPS and microSD expansion.
