Traveler 2.0

The New iPad - Three Surprises

As expected, Apple unveiled its new iPad in San Francisco on Tuesday. While the release of a new iPad was predictable, some of its features—and missing features—were surprising. Here’s a look at three eyebrow raisers.

1. The iPad’s minimalist name. Apple went simple this time around, choosing not to call its latest iPad the iPad 3 or iPad HD, as had been rumored. Given that Apple plans to continue selling the iPad 2, this no-name strategy seems a bit odd. And how will we effectively do Google searches for the new iPad, without having to see results for previous iPads too? For now, typing new iPad into Google weeds out earlier models. But what happens when the new iPad is no longer new?

 2. The improved but still-not-great cameras. The new iPad sports a significantly improved rear-facing camera, capable of 5 megapixels, compared to the iPad 2’s similar camera, capable of just 0.7 megapixels. Apple says its rear-facing camera is also capable of capturing 1080p video, while the previous iPad could only record 720p. Even so, Apple has left the VGA-quality FaceTime front-facing camera unchanged with the new iPad. And the new iPad’s rear-facing camera still lags behind the iPhone 4S’s 8 megapixels. Why not bring the iPad’s cameras up to par with the iPhone? Admittedly, far more people are likely to use an iPhone as a camera than an iPad, due to the sizes of the two devices. Apple could truly disrupt the filmmaking industry by adding truly awesome video and audio recording capabilities to the iPad—which, with its new 9.7-inch Retina display, would make one hell of a viewfinder.

3.  No Siri. Since Steve Jobs’ bio hit stores, rumors have swirled that Apple is working on a smart TV that will be controlled by Siri, the virtual assistant technology Apple acquired and added to the iPhone 4S. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it make sense for Apple to get more people accustomed to Siri before the smart Apple TV is introduced? And if so, wouldn’t the new iPad have been an ideal opportunity to acquaint more users with Siri? On the other hand, Apple is fighting a formidable competitor in the smartphone market—Google and its Android platform. Siri is a strong competitive differentiator for Apple’s smartphone, so maybe that’s why the folks in Cupertino decided to keep Siri exclusive to the iPhone 4S. After all, if Siri were also available on the iPad, could that diminish demand for the 4S in some way? It’s possible.

iPad 3 Rumors Suggest Next Apple Tablet Will Have Siri

This week was supposed to be all about the CES 2012 product announcements. And yet, rumors about Apple's next iPad are buzzing all over the net. Here's a quick roundup of the next Apple tablet, reportedly due in March.

* The iPad 3 is likely to look much like the iPad 2, just as the iPhone 4S is a kissing cousin to its predecessor. The iPad 3 may be slightly thicker, which could render existing iPad 2 cases incompatible. It’s doubtful the next iPad will be as thick as the original Apple tablet, however.

* The iPad 3 will have significant hardware upgrades, such as a faster A6 chip, improved front and rear-facing cameras, and a Sharp screen with 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution. The iPad 2, by comparison, has an A5 processor, so-so cameras, and a screen resolution of 1024 x 768. 

* Apple’s Siri virtual assistant technology is also rumored to be an iPad 3 feature, according to 9to5Mac.

* Speculation about a second, smaller iPad to compete with Amazon’s Kindle seems to be flickering out at the moment.

Best iPad Bags - Victorinox Flex Pack Backpack & Man Bag

I'm a huge fan of things that serve two or more functions, like jeeps that are also boats. And so, before my recent trip to Europe, I shopped for a small backpack for hiking and a small black 'man' bag for evening. My requirements for each bag: they must be big enough to accommodate my  iPad 2, have an external water bottle pocket, and at least one other external pocket for easy access to pens, pads, keys, and such.

I ended up buying only one bag, the Victorinox Flex Pack ($63 at Amazon). With its smart design, the bag can serve as a compact backpack. Then, by reconfiguring its two straps into one, you can wear it across the shoulder bag. The strap is said to be slash-proof because it's reinforced with wire.

Downside: There's no cushioning to protect your iPad. So if you use this as your iPad bag, be sure the tablet is protected with a sturdy case. And that's about it for drawbacks, as far as I'm concerned.

One other thing: I bought a small (13 oz.) filtered Bobble water bottle for the trip. In the morning, I'd fill it with tap water in my hotel so I'd have water with me throughout the day. And the small bottle fits perfectly in the Flex Pack's outside water bottle pocket. 

Some cool things I learned about Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs' death was a shock, even though his recent resignation from Apple was obviously health related. Having absorbed the shock, I've spent a lot of time reading the stories about his life and impact. Here are some of the cool things about Jobs I didn't know: 

 * He and Steve Wozniak started Apple in 1976 with $1,300. The company's current market value: $351 billion. I'd say that was a wise investment.

* Jobs bought Pixar for $10 million. The Walt Disney Company later acquired it for $7.4 billion. Another wise investment. 

 * Ella Fitzgerald sang at his 30th birthday party, in 1985. Ella was still going strong at that time. I can say this becaise I was lucky enough to see her in concert in 1983. She tore the roof off, brought the house down, and smiled sweetly throughout.

 * Jobs told a reporter that taking LSD was one of the most important things he'd done in his life. Only a child of the 70s could say such a thing and get away with it.

 * No market research went into the iPad. Said Jobs: "It's not the consumers' job to know what they want." This is the equivalent of Henry Ford saying that if he had asked consumers what they wanted in transportation, they would have said "a faster horse." In this era of focus groups and market research, it takes enormous insight, a deep well of confidence, and I'll just say it: big cojones, to forge ahead with your vision.

 * Speaking of cojones: In the eighth grade, Jobs needed a particular part to finish the frequency counter he was making, so he called William Hewlett, the co-founder of HP. Hewlett had no idea who Jobs was but talked to him for 20 minutes, gathered the parts Jobs needed, and offered him a summer intern job. This is one of my favorite Steve Jobs stories, ever.

* Jobs and Wozniak built and sold blue boxes that made it possible for people to make free, and illegal, long-distance calls, back in the days of Ma Bell's monopoly. How ironic that, decades later, Apple's iPhone was so closely aligned with AT&T for what seemed like an eternity. 

* His motto came from "The Whole Earth Catalog," which was: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." 

* Many people quoted in the obits have compared Steve Jobs to Walt Disney. Taking that comparison to the extreme, can you imagine what a Jobs World or a Jobs Land might have looked like? Everything would be beautifully, tastefully designed and minimalist, like an Apple Store with rides, and everyone breaking out into dance routines in front of webcams. That's one theme park I'd gladly visit.  

 

Planning to check email on vacation? Read this first

Life is a beach (at Monterosso, Italy) when you go off the grid

The next time you go away for vacation, particularly if it's to an international destination, do yourself a favor: Don't check email or voicemail. At all. Zero, nada, niente. 

Before you roll your eyes and click away, allow me to state my case in favor of going off the grid. 

Recently, I took a two-week trip to the U.K. and Italy with my partner Nick. Voicemail wasn't a concern; no way was I checking it. But I wrestled with whether or not to log into my email account during the trip. On previous travels, I'd check email in the morning and occasionally at night. It seemed like a practical compromise. As a Gmail user, I chose to limit my vacation auto response only to people in my contacts. I worried that by auto responding to every incoming email, I'd also be validating my email address to potential spammers. As a result, I felt compelled to check email on vacation, in case I received a message from someone not in my contacts--for instance, a potential new client.

There's a huge downside to this strategy.

First of all, people tend to send you little (or big) problems in email. How do I do this? What do you think of that? Can you help me? Nine out of ten times, these problems tend to work themselves out without your intervention if you simply aren't available.

Secondly, you run the risk of getting pulled into arguments and other unpleasantness back home. On a prolonged trip to the U.K. two years ago, I found myself drawn into an ugly squabble that troubled me for days. It was completely unnecessary and could certainly have waited until I was home. The argument pulled me away from where I was at the time and, worse, from the vacation state of mind I had been enjoying so much (and needed so badly).

Here's another problem to the strategy: By not auto-responding to every incoming email for fear of getting more spam, I was giving spammers control over my vacation. How absurd is that? Spam is going to make its wormy way into your email inbox no matter what you do.

So for our recent trip, I took the following steps before, during, and after: 

1. I gave everyone I work with at least two weeks notice that I would not be available at all during my vacation. I gave them the specific start and stop dates.

2. I gave my immediate family, a neighbor, and a few close friends our travel itinerary and the names and phone numbers of the hotels in London and Italy where we'd be staying. I gave people a way to contact me, but I didn't exactly make it easy for them.

3. In Gmail, I created a vacation auto response for all incoming email, not just those from people in my contacts. My message clearly stated I was on sabbatical and when I'd be available again. (You don't want to say you're away on vacation, for security reasons.)

4. I created an outgoing voicemail greeting basically saying the same thing.

5. I didn't travel with my laptop. I did take my iPad, but I only used it to research information relative to the trip, to book train tickets, and so on. The rule I made was that I'd only use the iPad for entertainment (like watching a movie on the flight over) or to learn more about where we were or where we were going on the trip.

6. I told everyone I'd be gone two days longer than I actually would be. My goal was to give myself the weekend to ease back into reality and get over the jet lag. Then, after those two days were up, I spent about two and a half hours catching up on email. Yes, it was a slog. But I didn't care. 

I realize going off the grid for one or two weeks (or even more) isn't going to work for everyone. But guess what? During my time off, the world continued to spin quite nicely without my participation. For some people, this letting go might seem threatening; for me, it was empowering. I took complete control over my time off, instead of giving it away in little pieces. Not to get all new agey on you, but I said yes to myself and no to everyone else. 

I also wasn't pulled into a potentially big problem that, after a day or so of back-and-forth emails, ended up amounting to nothing at all. In fact, I didn't miss anything important by not checking my messages. Instead, my mind stayed where it needed to be: in the moment and on vacation.

How to fix iPad syncing 'required file can not be found' problem

Since I bought my iPad 2, I have consistently received an error message that the sync didn't work because the 'required file can not be found.' It seemed like everything was syncing OK with my iMac so I didn't worry about it.

However, when I tried to add new photos to my iPad 2, the syncing issue became a problem. Turns out this problem has to do with syncing photos and the iPod photo cache. After some Googling, I found the solution, which I'm passing along here:

1. Shut down iTunes.

2. Open the Pictures folder in the Mac finder. 

3. Right click on the iPhoto library and click on 'show package contents.'

4. Find the 'iPod photo cache' file and drag to desktop or delete it. (A new file will be created automatically later.)

5. Close the finder.

6. Reopen iTunes and sync your iPad.

7. The iPod photo cache rebuilds itself and your problem should be solved.

You can read comments about this solution in the Apple Support forum.  

Buy an iPad with 3G -- or tether it to your iPhone?

Image via Wikipedia

The Apple iPad 2 is hard to resist, and for those who already own an iPad first-generation, impossible to justify. 

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, onto more important matters. Such as: Should you buy an iPad 2 with 3G service from AT&T or Verizon? Or should you save the $130 extra that a 3G radio in an iPad 2 costs and use your iPhone as a personal hotspot for your iPad instead?

In my last blog post, I answered the AT&T vs. Verizon 3G iPad question: According to two different reports, AT&T's 3G data network is faster than Verizon's. 

As for the second question, I did some tests this afternoon using Speedtest.net on my first-generation iPad. I wanted to see which was faster: the first-gen iPad's AT&T built-in 3G radio, or using my iPhone 4 as a personal hotspot for my iPad, which I connected to my iPhone via Wi-Fi. I ran Speedtest.net three times using each connection method, then averaged the download and upload speeds.

The winner? My iPhone 4. When I used it as a hotspot for the iPad, the average download speed I got on the iPad was 1830 kbps and upload speed was 1022 kbps. By comparision, the average download speed using my iPad's built-in 3G connection was 1300 kbps, with an average upload speed of 251 kbps.

Your mileage may vary, as the cliche goes. But if you're only going to need 3G data service occasionally on an iPad 2, and you always have your iPhone (or other tethering-capable smartphone) with you, you might save yourself the extra $130 and just get a Wi-Fi-only iPad 2. You'll have to pay $45 monthly for the tethering privilege, however (but there's no contract), which includes AT&T's top data plan for $25 per month plus an additional $20 per month for tethering. That's compared to $15 a month for AT&T's least expensive iPad data plan (also no contract needed). Verizon's iPad 2 data plans begin at $20 per month. Also, the big differences in speed that I experienced might be less significant on an iPad 2, which is considerably faster than the first-generation iPad.

Just something else to consider as you wait in line at the Apple store. Oh, and Steve Jobs would say, one more thing: If you already bought an iPad 2 with built-in 3G and you're saying to yourself, "Damn! Should have bought the Wi-Fi only," I bet you could sale your iPad 2 on Amazon or ebay and even make a small profit. Supplies are still tight.  

Related articles

• WiFi-Only iPad 2 Gets GPS When Tethered to iPhone (cultofmac.com)
• Verizon selling iPad 1 for as low as $299 (reviews.cnet.com)
• iPad 2 -- Which 3G network is better, AT&T or Verizon? (traveler2.typepad.com)
• Crowds descend on London stores for iPad 2's UK launch (macworld.com)

iPad 2 -- Which 3G network is better, AT&T or Verizon?

The iPad 2 is finding its way into trembling hands across the U.S. even as I type. And as prospective buyers rush into the Apple store, they're probably wondering which iPad 2 with 3G service to buy -- the one from AT&T or the one from Verizon?

I've come across two reports showing that AT&T's 3G network is faster than Verizon's. 

* Wired reported on Feb. 17 that in tests conducted by the creators of Speedtest.net, AT&T iPhone transfer rates were "roughly two times faster than the Verizon iPhone's." It's likely to assume that the iPad 2 will perform better on AT&T's 3G network, as well.

* PC World reported on Feb. 22 that in its 13-city tests, AT&T's 3G network was 67 percent faster on average than its competitor's networks, including Verizon. 

Still wondering whether you should get an iPad 2 with 3G? If you travel at all, I recommend it. Yes, Wi-Fi is becoming more widely available (and sometimes free) in airports and hotels. But you can't count on it. Also, if you attend trade shows or conferences, you can't always rely on the show's Wi-Fi signal, either. For example, this week I attended the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) conference in San Jose. The conference Wi-Fi signal was often painfully slow. So instead, I used my iPad's AT&T 3G service--which was actually faster.

Incidentally, SMX attendees were asked several times to turn off their MiFi portable routers, as they were interfering with the Wi-Fi.

 

Related articles

• Macworld's Guide to IPad 2 Launch Day (pcworld.com)
• Early iPad 2 Demand Outstrips Supply (pcworld.com)
• AT&T vs. Verizon iPad 2 Data Plans Comparison Graph (slashgear.com)

 

iPad 2 could be a cool video recorder -- especially with a tripod

Surprising absolutely no one, Apple's iPad 2 features front- and rear-facing cameras. The rear camera is capable of recording 720p HD video. And for $5 you can buy the iPad-optimized iMovie for editing and sharing your recorded video directly on the iPad.

The iPad 2's video recording potential is intriguing. Having a 9.7-inch screen for video recording, instead of the much smaller LCDs on video cameras and smartphones, is huge (literally). Imagine how much easier it would be to frame a scene when you have such a big canvas to work with. And imagine how appreciate over-40 eyes (like mine) will be, not having to squint to see what the heck you're supposed to be shooting. Also, the iPad 2's purported 10-hour battery life will be another advantage to videographers in the field. Not many camcorders or smartphones can offer 10 hours of battery life.

Of course, holding up an iPad 2 to record a video would not only look dorky, it would most likely make your footage shaky. So I expect we're going to see a lot of iPad 2-compatible tripods coming out in the coming weeks, similar in concept to this iPhone 4 tripod.

Related articles

• Apple iPad2 raises the bar for tablets (blogs.consumerreports.org)
• All the Details on Apple's iPad 2: Specs, Pricing, Release Date (readwriteweb.com)
• Apple Announces iMovie for iPad 2 (macstories.net)
• iMovie comes to the iPad 2 (news.cnet.com)
• iMovie for iPad revealed (slashgear.com)

Skype now does video chats on iPhones over 3G and Wi-Fi

Skype video chats on an iPhone are now a reality--more or less.

Here's the 'more' part: You can use the free Skype iPhone app to place and receive free video calls on an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch 4G. And you can receive video calls on an iPad and an iPod touch 3G. Given that both devices lack a camera, you can't place a video call from them.

Interestingly enough, you can video chat with Skype and an iPhone over AT&T's 3G network--something Apple doesn't let you do (yet) with FaceTime. Skype video calls can also be conducted over Wi-Fi networks, and that's probably the best bet for quality.

And now, the 'less' part: I can't imagine that a video chat on an iPhone 3GS would be worth the trouble. Because that phone lacks a front-facing camera, you'd have to stare at the phone's back to project your image--which means, of course, you can't see the person you're Skype-ing with.

At any rate, I just did a quick test, using Skype on my iPhone 4 to call another Skype account on an iMac. It worked really well. 

Related articles

• Skype finally brings video chat to the iPhone, one-ups Apple's FaceTime (venturebeat.com)
• Skype Releases Apple iOS Video Chat (informationweek.com)
• Skype, used by 124M a month, gets broader iPhone access (chron.com)
• Skype Looks to Accelerate Mobile Video Chat With iOS App (gigaom.com)