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We’ve all had plenty of time to digest the iPad and all its magical wonders and in the few months we’ve had it it has sold over a million units. But that just means another few billion people are still on the fence about it! Here are a few things I’ve discovered about the iPad in my travels thus far and I hope will help you make your iPad buying decision.

1. It’s a great e-reader
The iPad is a great ereader. It’s easy to find books on any one of the various stores available to you – Kindle, Nook, and iBooks – and the screen is clear, bright, and eminently readable. It’s great on the train or plane – just get a case and hold it in one hand. You can also grab formatted text like PDFs and open it in GoodReader. There is one caveat, however, which we’ll discuss later.

2. It’s great for games
The games made specifically for the iPad are great. Civilization Revolution is my favorite by far (except when it crashes constantly) but, contrary to my earlier assessment, Plants v. Zombies is fun as well. As Nicholas noted, Nintendo should be scared.

3. It’s a great netbook replacement
Throw away your old netbook. This is the new hotness. Don’t worry about the keyboard. It works fine as long as you have a box of baby wipes handy to clean the screen.

4. It’s a great couch-surfing device
Picture this: you’re watching TV. The iPad is on your coffee table. Don’t pick it up or you won’t be able to put it down. While we really shouldn’t be spreading our attention so thin, do you really need to dedicated every single one of your neurons to Modern Family? It’s a good show, but there’s Twitterin’ to be done!

5. The 3G model is probably your best bet
This kind of doesn’t fit in this list, but if you’re up in the air I think the 3G model is the best. While you can turn off the 3G, you’re going to want to use it on the road and, barring the chance of download of 800MB of data and getting a $18,000 bill, you’ll find it very useful.

Incidentally, carriers suck. If you do start running up your bill you’ll get an SMS notifying you that you may want to slow down but they won’t cap you. They’ll keep pounding out data until you run up $1,000 or more for looking at maps of Paris.

6. It’s excellent for movies
If there’s any reason to get Apple’s iPad stand – or the Joule iPad stand for that matter – it’s so you can watch Netflix and movies on it. This is, literally, Apple’s new Apple TV. It’s a little TV. It’s great.

7. It’s great for photographers
If you’re a photographer, grab one of these. You can sit there and show off your portfolio with a few flicks of your finger. You can even run presentations so you can add music and animations.

8. It will be great for restaurants and fancypants hotels
You just know that next wine bar, probably called iWine, will have iPads available for folks to place their order. It will also be funny when those things shatter at a rate of one per day.

9. It’s fun for kids – but be careful
As we note below, the iPad seems fragile but kids love it. My 18 month old slaps through the pages and tries out apps while my four-year-old is a champ at almost all the games. Kids love it and you can read from it to them although – and this is a big thing with me for some reason – I don’t like reading bedtime stories on it mostly because you’re dealing with a brightly lit screen and an antsy toddler.

10. It’s a great primary travel computer
If you’re going on to a meeting in another city or country and you don’t need to run much of anything except email, a little note-taking, and some movie watching, take the iPad. You can do all of this – and more. Would I say the same thing about the iPod Touch or iPhone. I don’t know. The iPad is more comfortable for all of these things and makes for a good hotel room companion. Don’t take my word for it, though. Talk to Joel Johnson. He knows.

Now for the bad news…

1. It’s not a good bedside email companion
For some reason I still use my iPhone or Blackberry to check email when I wake up. The fact that I’m reading email when I wake up is a different problem entirely. I should take up smoking.

2. It’s not the best device for writing longer documents
I really tried to edit a huge document using Pages and other editors but it just didn’t work. Pages is still too nascent to work well for folks who want to write the Great Armenian Novel, Իմ Մայրս, Իմ այծ նախիր.

3. It’s no Kindle/Nook
The iPad sucks in sunlight. There’s no two ways about it. If you plan to read your ebooks out on the veranda with a mint julep, you’d better get a tent.

4. It’s doesn’t make a good tennis racket
When you first get the iPad you’ll be amazed by its size – it’s amazingly skinny and light. Then, when you have it for a few days, you realize you’re holding a big piece of glass. While this may my useful in a bar fight, it’s going to freak you out to use the iPad without a case. It’s like you want to cover this delicate creature in a second skin.

5. It won’t make you popular on the train/plane/bus/boat
Contrary to popular belief, the ladies and men of mass transit won’t notice your iPad. The Kindle has spoiled that approach for PUA nerds as many ignore the device and think it’s just an old, boring ereader. Note: this may work in places where the Great Urban Aloofness Field has not penetrated, like your nearest retirement home.

If you’re a developer in the Baltimore and Washington DC area, then you’ll be delighted to know that the second annual preDevCamp in your area is scheduled for June 5th.  It’s not looking like the event will be as widespread in 2010 as it was last year, with the Baltimore folks so far being the only ones to put one together, but this time around developers will be armed with a vastly more mature SDK, a PDK, and an much improved toolkit (Project Ares, anyone?).  They’ve officially opened up registration, and the organizer of the event can be reached by way of Twitter @webos_baltimore.

[via Palm’s Developer Center Blog]

Alarmed by the state of the digital market, media and state of its citizens, the EU panned out a group of initiatives for their members and agencies to follow in the next five years. These initiatives have been grouped in a document called the Digital Agenda.

The EU, represented through Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission, r… (read more)

The Boston Celtics won over the Orlando Magic and took a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals last night. Sweeping the Magic is not yet sure even if the Celtics had taken over the lead and are 32-0 in the playoffs. Apparently, Boston star Paul Pierce was thinking sweep after the game because his PaulPierce34 twitter account said: “Anybody got a BROOM?”

Pierce’s online representatives are saying the account was hacked. According to Pro Basketball Talk, Paul Pierce’s Twitter updates mostly come from the web or via SMS. However, the “anybody got a BROOM?” tweet was generated through the twitterific platform.

Meanwhile, other people saw Paul Pierce talking with reporters when the tweet appeared. Someone tweeted: “RT @taramanis @athleteint I saw [Paul Pierce] talking to other reporters when these were sent… no cell in hand.”

The said tweet came after Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. Paul Pierce’s twitter account is verified so there is no question about the authenticity of Paul Pierce’s Twitter profile.

The tweet sent the media into a frenzy and they even asked Dwight Howard for a comment. When asked about what he thought about the tweet, Howard said, “No comment,” then “pride come before a fall.”

The trash-talking tweets have already been removed from his profile.

Related posts:

1. Jim Carrey Tweets: Support For Tiger Woods While Lashing Out On Erin
2. Empty-handed Orlando Magic Faces Game 3
3. Don’t play with Obama’s Twitter Account

NTE Energy, which last month entered into a joint venture last month with Energy Investors Funds (EIF) to develop hybrid gas/solar power plants, has hired Mark Daley, director of strategic origination at Independent Power Producer Calpine, as executive vice president, power marketing. Prior to Calpine Daley worked for Florida Power Corporation, which is now known as Progress Energy Florida.

Tim Eves has also joined NTE Energy as executive vice president in charge of project development. Eves joins NTE Energy from Vercipia, a developer of cellulosic ethanol production technology. Eve also worked at Calpine where he was a project developer.

Michael Rice and Cameron Dix are joining NTE Energy as project developers.

Among the many announcements expected at this year’s Google I/O developer conference starting later today, one is of particular interest for HTML5 video. The tech company is rumored to open-source the VP8 codec created by On2, a company acquired by Google earlier in the year. New details are starting to pop up and one is the p… (read more)

Katie Couric visits Sanford “Sandy” Markowitz, MD, PhD, and his research team

Katie Couric visited Sanford “Sandy” Markowitz, MD, PhD, professor and researcher of cancer and genetics, and his research team in his lab Saturday before Commencement to gain a better understanding of the day-to-day research necessary for advancements in colon cancer.

The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric anchor and managing editor received a warm welcome from the researchers, who provided Couric with hands-on training. They also informed her of the various research projects being conducted in the Markowitz lab at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Watch the video of Couric’s lab tour.

The touching visit brought together Couric and Markowitz, who have been working together for years to improve colon cancer screening, and ultimately the disease. Couric’s late husband, Jay Monahan, succumbed to the disease in 1998.

Couric went on to help co-found The Entertainment Industry Foundation’s National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, which has raised awareness and funding for colon cancer research.

On Sunday, Couric delivered the Commencement convocation. More than 1,900 students graduated. Campus members can watch the speech online.

For more information contact Christina DeAngelis, 216.368.3635.

How about another story about just how quickly Android’s going? According to analyst Gartner, Android had a 1.9 percent worldwide smartphone market share in the first quarter of 2009. Fast forward to the first quarter of 2010, and that number has jumped to 9.6 percent. (Obviously the success of the Motorola Droid and its variants has had something to do with that, but other phones certainly have contributed, too.) The iPhone, meanwhile, climbed from 10.5 percent to 15.4 percent, giving the two operating systems 25 percent of the entire market. [Gartner]

Amazon will offer a lower-priced, less reliable tier of its popular Simple Storage Service, the retailer said today. The offering, called Reduced Redundancy Storage, is aimed at companies that wouldn’t be utterly bereft if the less reliable storage fails. From the Amazon release:

Amazon S3’s standard and reduced redundancy options both store data in multiple facilities and on multiple devices, but with RRS, data is replicated fewer times, so the cost is less. Once customer data is stored, Amazon S3 maintains durability by quickly detecting failed, corrupted, or unresponsive devices and restoring redundancy by re-replicating the data. Amazon S3 standard storage is designed to provide 99.999999999% durability and to sustain the concurrent loss of data in two facilities, while RRS is designed to provide 99.99% durability and to sustain the loss of data in a single facility.

As the market for infrastructure-as-a-service platforms grow, Amazon is trying to offer variations and services that distinguish its compute and storage cloud from those of Rackspace and Verizon and from platforms such as Microsoft’s Azure or VMforce. Cheaper storage with a lower service level is one such way, and its spot pricing instances are another.

On his blog, Amazon’s Jeff Barr offers an overview of the RSS offering. For more detail, check out Amazon CTO Werner Vogel’s explanation on how S3 works and what the magic behind RRS is.

For more on the economics of cloud computing and how they will evolve, visit our Structure 2010 conference June 23 and 24 where Amazon CTO Werner Vogels will be a key note speaker.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub req’d):

Spot Instances Won’t Commoditize the Cloud, and That’s OK

Last Tuesday, Apple had just released the iPhone’s fourth beta of OS 4 to developers. Apple didn’t mention any details or specs that the latest beta has that make it better than the other OS. According to some reports, OS 4 is faster than the other OS and has added wallpaper options.

The first iPhone OS 4 was first shown to us by Apple in the early April. The OS features like the third part app multi-tasking, organize apps in groups, a box for emails, Bluetooth keyboard support and many more.

This coming summer, the iPhone OS 4.0 will be accessible and available for the iPod touch and iPhone but will be later for the iPad which will be available this coming fall. The beta of OS4 and the SDK which is used for developing iPhone OS 4 is already accessible to developers at the Apple Developer Web Site.

Will this iPhone OS be the answer to a better iPod touch and iPhone? There might be some of you who already have their hands on the OS. Can you please let us know what you think of the latest OS?

Related posts:

1. Apple iPhone Update: Free iPhone Apps!
2. Apple Welcomes the new iAd mobile advertising
3. iPad Sales Updates

It’s been a long time coming, but it seems as though Sprint is finally ready to offer the official Android 2.1 update to Hero devices on their network.  Although the actual download link isn’t live yet, the support page for the upgrade is available and can be seen here.  As always, make sure to back up all of the important information on your phone before attempting the upgrade, which should give you something to pass the time while waiting for the official download link to go live on Sprint’s site.  If you upgrade your Hero today, tell us how it goes below!

Via Engadget

The Connecticut Senate race entered a new era this week. Rvelations that Democrat Richard Blumenthal embellished his military record on several occasions, his once-stratospheric public approval rating has taken a huge hit.

“The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Connecticut finds Blumenthal with just a three-point advantage over Linda McMahon, 48% to 45%,” Rasmussen states on its website. “Two weeks ago, he led the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment by 13 percentage points. The New York Times story broke late Monday; the survey was taken Tuesday evening.”

Blumenthal performs better against Republicans Rob Simmons and Peter Schiff, besting them by 11 and 16 percentage points respectively.

Google co-founder gets a day’s life out of his Android battery, and he thinks you should, too. Speaking at Google’s Zeitgeist forum (alongside CEO Eric Schmidt), Page said poorly written third-party apps likely are to blame.

"I have noticed there are a few people who have phones where there is software running in the background that just sort of exhausts the battery quickly. If you are not getting a day, there is something wrong."

Schmidt — who, like Page, also is way smarter than you — chimed in, "The primary consumer of the battery life on these phones is the transmit/receive circuit. SO tuning that and obviously figuring out a way to not use too much of that extends your battery life."

Sho’ ’nuff, Eric. Looks like somebody read our battery life tips post. [via Tech Radar]

Toyota is poised to recall nearly 4,000 Lexus luxury sedans in the United States, and 11,500 worldwide, to fix an issue with the car’s steering.

The recall will cover the Lexus LS, the flagship sedan of the Lexus lineup. The recall will also cover LS sedans sold in Japan, Europe and China.

Lexus owners in Japan have complained that the front wheels of the LS don’t return to the center position fast enough after making a turn. Fixing the issue will require mechanical and software changes, a Toyota spokesperson said.

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Source: Car news, reviews and auto show stories

Sprint has gifted its HTC Hero owners the long-awaited Android 2.1 update, seven months after the first screenshots of a Hero running the faster, snazzier version showed up. More »










HTC Hero – Android – Sprint – Handhelds – htc

Palm and O2 have made it official: the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are both coming to the UK on May 28th. Pricing isn’t great – the cheapest monthly tariff is £25 for a paltry 100 minutes and you’ll need to drop £99 on the Pre at purchase. More likely you’ll want to go with a tariff £35 or higher to get the phone free and get a minute plan you can, you know, talk on. On the bright side, all plans include unlimited text and data.

Press releases: Palm and O2. Thanks to everybody who sent this in!

There I was, thinking that knights didn’t need contracts to serve their leige they just swore fealty and stuff. But Namco Bandai’s new project, Knight’s Contract, sounds like there are signatures, medieval legal offices, and HR

COPY EDITOR CYNTHIA L. OROSCO: This was my first jaunt in an Impreza, and I must say I was a bit disappointed. I’ve come to like Subarus quite a bit, especially after a year with our long-term Forester and our new long-term Subie, the Outback. But this Impreza just didn’t seem to meet the level of quality I’ve come to expect from Subaru. The power was still there, but the interior materials and knobs/buttons are dull and the car is noisy. The exterior lines don’t do much for me, either.

Inside, not only do your clothes stick to the cloth seats, but the seat bottom is flat and overall, the whole thing is just not supportive. The driver’s seat can’t be lowered much, so your head nearly hits the headliner. (Same thing for the passenger.) The cabin overall feels cramped, and the trunk sounded a bit tinny, although it does provide a good amount of space. And the cabin lets in a lot of road noise. Very annoying.

Maybe it’s just me, but if I were in the market for this size/type of vehicle, I wouldn’t go for this Impreza.

MOTORSPORTS EDITOR MAC MORRISON: Enthusiasts tend to think WRX or STI when they hear the “Impreza” name, so it’s easy to forget that a more utilitarian edition exists. Thus, it is somewhat shocking to see this car without the sporty trim, with smaller wheels and nothing that really says “Impreza” as those same enthusiasts have come to know it.

In comparison with the hotter models, this car is pretty bland. It is still fun to drive, though not so much with this automatic transmission. The whole car is indeed rather noisy, and this engine is just enough to give you an impression of some spritely performance, but you find yourself noting that there is little resemblance between driving this version and, say, a WRX.

The AWD is the biggest thing going for this car, especially at this price. I’d rather have this than, say, a Suzuki SX4 with AWD. But is that really saying much?

ASSOCIATE EDITOR JONATHAN WONG: Attention base Subaru Impreza shoppers: Save $1,000 and get a five-speed manual transmission instead of the four-speed automatic. That is all. Have a good day.

The Impreza 2.5i is a prime example of a car which is that much better when equipped with a manual transmission. We’ve had many 2.5i models come through here with the standard five-speed gearbox, and many of us around here raved about it as being one hell of a bargain. Unfortunately, I can’t be too enthusiastic about this car with an automatic slushbox.

Is it that bad? No it’s not, because this boxer four-cylinder is a proven engine with respectable power, and Subaru’s hallmark symmetrical AWD system is here. In fact, it’s still ideal for customers looking for a reliable and comfortable commuter with the added all-weather capability of AWD. It’s a package that almost no other car can touch at this price point.

The suspension is cushy with noticeable roll in corners and dive under braking, which is great for regular driving over rough roadways. Steering response is quick, but the mushy brake pedal was a disappointment and the brakes didn’t bite as much as I hoped.

One thing we know is that this engine is up to task when bolted to a five-speed manual, but with this automatic, this car feels dogged down, especially when merging onto the freeway. So we have to fault the four-speed automatic here, which was slow to shift even when I had it slotted in Sport mode. I repeat, save the money and get a five-speed manual.

I also agree that the cabin is noisy on the expressway, but it’s a certain improvement over the window-frameless doors on the previous-generation Imprezas.

SENIOR WEB REPORTER GREG MIGLIORE: I liked my weekend in the Impreza. At a basic level, the car does a lot of things proficiently and is a well-rounded effort.

I liked the comfortable suspension, which made for an agreeable drive on the expressways and around town. I noticed some noise in the cabin, but really it wasn’t bad; this isn’t a luxury car. The steering was satisfying and directed the sedan fairly nimbly. The acceleration was decent. The 170-hp figure isn’t a big one, but the four-speed did an adequate job of shifting. It didn’t feel underpowered, though I would have liked a little more get-up. This is the base car, though.

It’s a fairly staid, conventional appearance on the outside. Nothing blows your mind or offends you. Inside is pleasant enough, though some of the silver-color trim didn’t present well. I loved the seat burners, and the Impreza warmed up quickly on a chilly early morning. I have to give props to Subaru for seemingly always making its cars with cold-weather climates in mind. Also, the red dials were easy-to-read and smart.

Overall, this is a nice car with AWD capability.

2010 Subaru Impreza 2.5i Premium Four-Door

Base Price: $19,190

As-Tested Price: $20,690

Drivetrain: 2.5-liter H4; AWD, four-speed automatic

Output: 170 hp @ 6,000 rpm, 170 lb-ft @ 4,400 rpm

Curb Weight: 3,163 lb

Fuel Economy (EPA/AW): 22/21.6 mpg

Options: Four-speed automatic transmission with sportshift ($1,000); special-edition package including power moonroof, fog lights, all-weather package, heated front seats, heated exterior mirrors ($500 after $1,260 discount)

For more

Source: Car news, reviews and auto show stories

[JURIST] A Somali man charged with piracy [JURIST news archive] pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of hijacking, kidnapping, and hostage taking related to last April’s attack on the US container ship Maersk Alabama [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse was originally charged [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] with five counts relating to the pirate attack on the Alabama, including committing an act of piracy as defined by the law of nations, conspiracy to seize a ship by force, conspiracy to take hostages, and two counts relating to the use of a firearm during commission of a crime. As part of a plea agreement, the prosecution agreed to drop the charges of piracy against Muse in exchange for his guilty plea and a sentence of 27 to 33 years in prison. Muse agreed not to challenge the sentence, and he apologized [Reuters report] for his actions, claiming the act of piracy happened because of the current situation in Somalia. Somali officials have criticized [BBC report] the US for exercising jurisdiction over Muse and other pirate suspects [JURIST report], insisting that piracy prosecutions should be conducted by an international tribunal. They have also asked that Somali pirate suspects be returned to Somalia, which lacks a functioning central government to address the piracy problem. Muse is scheduled to be sentenced on October 19.

Piracy remains an issue of international concern. On Monday, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) [official website] opened a UN conference on international crime by warning [JURIST report] about the inadequacies of the current international system in dealing with crimes like piracy. Earlier this month, the UNODC announced [JURIST report] that Seychelles will create a UN-supported center to prosecute suspected pirates. Last month, the UN Security Council unanimously approved [JURIST report] a resolution calling on member states to criminalize piracy under their domestic laws and urging Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] to consider an international tribunal for prosecuting piracy. The Security Council resolution came the same week the UN announced that a trust fund established to combat piracy will be funding five projects [UN News Centre report] aimed at piracy committed in the waters around Somalia.

The electric-vehicle revolution is upon us–or at least, that’s what manufacturers such as Mitsubishi would like us to believe.

We’ve had plenty of exposure to EVs, including several short drives in Mitsubishi’s first mass-production zero-emissions car, the i-MiEV. But none of those drives gave us a chance to live with an EV in the real world, to see how it really performs when subjected to the stresses of everyday use.

For our test, we borrowed an i-MiEV in Tokyo, using it day and night for a week as we would any other car in an urban setting. Initial skepticism faded within minutes after we silently rolled out of Mitsubishi’s headquarters and onto the streets of Tokyo. There is something quite satisfying about zooming through traffic in a little city car like the i-MiEV. The responsive and eerily quiet 63-hp electric motor puts a smile on your face every time you tap into that instant 133 lb-ft of torque, making it feel far faster than its gasoline-powered equivalent. With 88 lithium-ion batteries tucked away under the floor, the little i-MiEV also offers a confidence-inspiring low center of gravity.

We drove the i-MiEV on the usual errands, such as running to the grocery store, and, like any nervous EV operator, we found ourselves keeping close tabs on the battery’s 16-bar state-of-charge gauge. Mitsubishi claims a 100-mile range from full charge, but driving the car normally in stop-and-go city traffic saw the power level drop precipitously, pushing the car into a more realistic 50- to 60-mile range.

Using “eco” mode, which cuts power to the motor, helped increase range, so we typically selected maximum-power “D” mode only when we needed full acceleration, and quickly shifted back to eco mode for most other driving. A third mode, “B,” aids in recharging the batteries from engine braking, so we put it to use on even slight inclines and when coasting to stops.

Once the power bars indicate that the batteries are nearly depleted, the onboard navigation system provides locations of the nearest fast-charge points–at least in Tokyo. The Japanese government is working to expand the nation’s infrastructure of “eco stations,” and the capital city is already equipped with numerous quick-charge stations.

At a quick-charging station, the i-MiEV’s batteries recharge to 80 percent capacity in about 20 minutes, via a high-voltage plug behind a conventional filler cap. A 100 percent charge by plugging into a 110-volt home outlet takes about 16 hours (eight hours on a 220-volt outlet). Approximate cost: $1.

After one week and 200 miles in the seat on Tokyo streets, we think it’s clear that the i-MiEV makes sense for those who have short daily commutes or those who need economical transportation for brief urban trips. For those drivers, especially in Japan-where the government is providing subsidies to keep EV sticker prices down and where new charging locations are being added every week–the futuristic i-MiEV is ready today.

2010 Mitsubishi i-MiEV

ON SALE: Now in Japan

PRICE: $42,420 ($30,700 with government subsidies)

POWERTRAIN: Electric motor, 63-hp, 133-lb-ft electric motor, direct drive

CURB WEIGHT: 2,425 lb

0-60 MPH: 13 sec (est)

For more

Source: Car news, reviews and auto show stories