• Read more about Mobomo Mobisphere Roundup -- May 24, 2010

There's been yet another "leak" of a possible prototype of the 4th-gen Apple iPhone. A photo (above) shows both a black and a white phone with larger screens. Given all the rumors and SDK evidence, it seems obvious that the OS 4 iPhone will have video calling and the larger screen resolution necessary to pull that off.

Fortunately, in just 2 weeks, all the speculation will be put to rest when Apple's 5-day WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) kicks off on Jun 7th. Steve Jobs will start the event off with a keynote address to over 5,000 developers at the sold-out event. There's an email circulating around the Web that's supposedly from Jobs telling someone that "you won't be disappointed," in reference to what he's probably planning to announce at the conference. I.e., probably the new iPhone, other features of the new SDK, and a mention of the countries where the iPad will by then be available.

What Jobs might not know is the new but celebrated iPad hasn't only been banned in some countries but also in New York's Yankee Stadium of all places. Apparently the stadium's security policy considers the iPad to be in the laptop category, and laptops are not allowed in the stadium.

Has anyone told Yankee Stadium security that even the TSA (Transportation Safety Authority) differentiates between iPads and laptops? That's actually a very disappointing fact. If more venues ban iPads, then carrying a tablet computer around might not become a common practice. I carry my iPad with me wherever I go, almost without fail. Now if I'm driving, I could always leave my iPad hidden somewhere, but if I'm walking or taking public transit -- which is very likely in New York -- then what am I supposed to do with it? Considering London will have full Wi-Fi access for the 20102 Olympics, I'm guessing they won't be banning the iPad at venues there. Well, given that many Apple stores are sold out of the iPad, especially the 3G model, I'm guessing not a lot of people are going to be worried about this sort of ban, at least for now.

Is Apple stealing the market? Google announced last week that they were shutting down their online store and now Nokia is closing their flagship New York store. The Chicago store, on the other hand, is not closing. Wait a minute; doesn't New York have a larger population than Chicago? Wouldn't it make more sense to do the closing the other way around?

AT&T just got the Palm Pre Plus, but they're charging $150 for it despite Verizon's lower price. However, if you're a new AT&T customer, you can get the phone for $50, but without the free Palm Touchstone charging dock. AT&T's Pixi Plus will be available Jun 6th, to join the new AT&T Palm Pre Plus. The free Touchstone charge deal doesn't apply to the Pixi Plus [Engadget]. If you get any smartphone from AT&T, be forewarned that they've increased the early termination fee from $175 to $325, effective Jun 1st -- whether you're a new subscriber or renewing your service.

The U.S. FTC finally approved Google's purchase of mobile ad network AdMob Inc. While it took them six months to approve, the decision was partly to do with Apple's own purchase of ad network Quattro Wireless. If I'm not mistaken, Apple's purchase will result in their iAd network, announced at the same event earlier this year where Steve Jobs revealed some of the features that iPhone OS 4 would have.

The iPad might have a very long lasting battery but most smartphones seem to fizzle out in just a couple of hours of use. For example, the Palm Pre Plus I bought for it's Mobile Hotspot feature (to power my WiFi-only iPad), has a battery that dies long, long before the iPad. But Google's Larry Page recently said that if your Android-powered device isn't lasting a day, there's something wrong with your apps.

• Read more about Mobomo Mobisphere Roundup -- May 21, 2010

This is a stream-of-consciousness roundup of news in the mobile platform space from the past week. It covers Apple, Palm, Android and the mobile platform in general.

iPad sales in 2010 in the U.S. might hit 8M units, up from a previous estimate of 5M units [MacRumors]. Obviously, the international release is going to play a big factor in this, but at least iPad apps are now available internationally [Engadget]. Tablet devices in general could go from 7.6M units in 2010 to 46M units in 2014, according to IDC research [IDC]. To qualify as a "tablet" in IDC's research, a mobile device must have a 7-12 inches in diagonal screen size and have no physical keyboard. IDC compares that figure to the nearly 400M portable PCs that they expect will ship in 2014. Also noteworthy is that while U.S. Mac sales were up nearly 40% [Fortune] in April 2010, iPads are outselling Macs [All Things Digital], are nearing iPhone sales levels, and are taking away iPod sales [Silicon Alley Insider].

iPad and general tablet device sales might be up, but DisplaySearch says that 376M touchscreen phones shipped in 2009 [Mobile Entertainment News]. Gartner Research says that mobile phone sales worldwide grew 17% in just Q1 2010 [Gartner]. With this rapid sales growth, it's a bit refreshing to know that an extensive study does not conclusively tie cell phones to cancer [Bloomberg BusinessWeek]. Though unfortunately that doesn't mean they don't [Mobile Burn]

The number of Android-powered devices that Google is activating daily has increased from 30,000 last year to 100,000 now [TechCrunch]. Other news: there are now over 50K apps in the Android Marketplace, and with Google officially announcing Android 2.2 (Froyo) [MobileCrunch], that will increase. A couple of welcome changes with 2.2 include Internet tethering for carriers that choose to support it, and the ability to install apps on the SD card [PC World]. Google's Android 3, aka Gingerbread, will be released in Q4 2010 [MobileBurn], thought it might actually be numbered as 2.3 or 2.5.

Adobe has revealed Flash 10.1 for Android-based mobile devices [Mashable], with the intent of showing Steve Jobs he's wrong, that Flash can work smoothly on mobile phones [BusinessWeek]. Jobs' issues with Flash is that it's slow, power hungry, not touchscreen-enabled, and would cause mobile apps to crash. Now if they succeed in proving their point, and Jobs' does rescind his ban, it still might be a year before iPhone OS devices get Flash, if ever. (Rumor is that Apple Mac computers will also stop supporting Adobe Flash, which is a serious disappointment to me as an Apple products owner and tech evangelist. While the fact is that Flash does crash regularly on both my PC and Mac, I'd still like the choice to view Flash-enabled Web sites, considering Hulu has yet to adopt the HTML5/ H.264 video format.)

• Read more about Send in the (Apple iPad) Clones

Even if you have no interest in Apple's new iPad tablet computer, you probably can't get away from news about it, so you probably already know that it's pretty hard to get your hands on one, even in the United States. International availability will be done in phases, and it seems the date keeps getting pushed forwards, making a longer wait. But if you're not sold on the iPad, there'll be a number of competitors offering similar devices, and probably fairly quickly.

Currently, no less than Sony, Google, Nokia, RIM and BT (British Telecom), are considering releasing an iPad competitor, according to various online sources. Dell's Streak tablet (5", 7", 10" versions) will be out fairly soon, especially in Europe. HP just bought Palm and seemingly scrapped their Windows 7 tablet project shortly afterwards. I wouldn't be surprised if they soon have a tablet with Palm WebOS out in the future. And of course there are a while slew of other companies with tablet devices already out, including Fusion Garage's JooJoo and Aigo's N700.

• Read more about Does an Apple iPad Replace a Laptop or Netbook?

For the sake of usability testing alone, I've spent a considerable amount of time with my iPad, taking it with me whenever I leave the house. Since it's a WiFi-only model, I also take my Palm Pre Plus phone for it's Mobile Hotspot tethering feature, in case there's no WiFi wherever I'm going to be. While I have done "in the field" testing all that extensively since Apr 3rd (the day iPads were first available), I have found that the iPad is definitely not a laptop or even a netbook replacement, but for what it does do, it does quite well.

Yes, there are a number of limitations that the current iPad has, but app and OS limitations will eventually be dealt with, and it probably won't cost much if anything to upgrade. (Though there are rumors that iPads will only be allowed one free major OS upgrade.) Hardware limitations are a different story, but numerous sites are reporting their findings that the new iPad USB camera connection kit actually supports far more than cameras, including USB keyboards and even external hard drives. So some of the hardware limitations are being handled already, albeit often by third parties, not Apple.

Now until I do some more thorough usability testing, I don't want to write too much about the pros and cons just yet. However, Michael Gartenberg of Altimeter Group carried just his iPad around for two weeks, and wrote over at Slashgear about his ten iPad lessons learned -- much of which I've also found to be true. The most prominent feature is that the battery lasts so incredibly long, depending on your usage. (The drawback is that my Palm Pre Plus runs out of juice long beforehand, so I sometimes find myself without a wireless connection for the iPad, if I'm away from home the whole day or an entire weekend.)

While an iPad is not a replacement for a laptop or netbook for most people, it is still an amazing device that lets me take care of running my business while I'm away from my home office. For any tasks that it can't do well, I reserve for a netbook that my wife otherwise uses, or for my MacBook Pro when I get home.

The iPad also has numerous other uses that just aren't suited to netbooks and laptops, including being used as an inflight entertainment system, which Bluebox Avionics is doing. In fact, web video browsing was going to be one of the primary personal uses of my iPad, but iPad-enabled video content is still lagging. But for longer flights, with video content already loaded, the iPad could make for a great entertainment system. Sound quality especially via headphones is superb, and I say that even as a long-time audiophile. (It means more airlines could offer this extra without having to upgrade their airplanes, possibly reducing airfares?)

Still, For me, the iPad has been worth every cent, and that's before I've even acid-tested it with my own custom apps -- which are still a glimmer in my eye at the moment. It might be a relatively costly device, but for the workflow it offers and what it does well, it's worth it.

If you’re interested in knowing more about what a custom iPhone or iPad app can do for your business, please contact us.

• Read more about More iPad-Enabled Video Coming

In Apple's latest "What is iPad?" commercial, there's a claim of "all the world's Web sites in your hands." Of course, that's hardly true, despite the big push by some video content providers to switch from Adobe Flash -- which Apple refuses to support on iPhones and iPads, and possibly soon on Macs -- to HTML5's H.264 format, which Apple does support. The fact is, it's not true that you have "all the world's Web sites" on the iPad because I daily get frustrated at all the free TV shows I can't watch on my iPad while lounging on the couch.

So how much video online uses H.264? All Things Digital quotes MeFeedia, a video search engine, who say that H.264 makes up only about 26% of online video content. However, TechCrunch quoted Encoding.com, who claim a figure of 66%, and blinkx, who claim 67%.

Eiteher way, these figures put the lie to Apple's claim, but several TV broadcasters are claiming to be converting their online video content to be iPad-enabled, and other content providers are likely to follow suit. There may only be about a million iPads sold to date, but there mid-double digit millions of iPhones out there, and if a Verizon iPhone does in fact come out, many more millions of iPhones might sell to the increased consumer base. In other words, HTML5/ H.264 video content is a trend that will continue.

• Read more about iPad Accessories Aim to Improve the User Experience

If the Apple iPad's form factor isn't exactly what you're looking for, a couple of companies, TwelveSouth and ClamCase, are trying to improve the user experience by offering accessories that physically change how you use the iPad.

TwelveSouth offers an iPad version of their BookArc for MacBook. BookArc for iPad is rugged, arc-shaped stand that holds an iPad upright for easy viewing. If you pair the BookArc ($39.99) with a Bluetooth keyboard -- such as the one from Apple, shown in the picture -- the result is like having a mini iMac, but with touchscreen ability. The BookArc will also work with the iPad case from Apple.

The ClamCase is quite different. It takes what looks like the iPad case that Apple offers -- which is actually pretty nice; I have one -- and goes it one better by including a built-in Bluetooth keyboard, essentially turning it into a mini-laptop or netbook. What's more, the case flips over, can be stood upright, and can be set on angle similar to what the Apple iPad case offers. See the pictures below for a better understanding.

Of course, neither solution can use a Bluetooth mouse (believe me, I've tried on my iPad), so I'm guessing that they are better used for either typing in information or longer viewing of content such as videos. The BookArc is already available, but the ClamCase is coming Fall 2010. No pricing on the ClamCase yet.

Now, as much I love my iPad, the cynic in me thinks the BookArc makes sense but unless the Clamcase is relatively inexpensive, why would you just get a netbook computer? The current generation of iPad lacks many of the features netbooks have as standard, including USB ports. However, if you've used an iPad and understand what's so brilliant about it, then you'll know how it also offers features that netbooks just don't have, namely a touchscreen and supporting applications. I'm inclined to think that both of these accessories can be valuable in the right situations. However, holding an iPad in your hand and taking full advantage of the touchscreen features is one of its highlights, and any sort of accessory is going to detract from that.

• Read more about The iPad at Work: Observations from a Programmer, Designer and QA Expert

When the iPad was announced last January, starry-eyed Apple fans (including Intrideans) rushed to get their orders in. Some Apple fans grumbled about the iPad being just an oversized iPhone, but many of the out-spoken protestors were also quietly trying to justify the impending purchase they were about to make. After all, how could an Apple fan turn their back on such an exciting device? Sure, it might just be a huge iPhone, but you have to have it — because it’s a HUGE iphone!

In an effort to find out how well the iPad holds up for professional use, I asked three Intrideans to share their user experiences. I gave enough time for the initial euphoria to wear off, and now we’ve got some great insight into how a developer, designer and QA manager are using the iPad at work!

Our Director of Mobile Development, Brendan Lim, shares his observations on how the portability of the iPad has changed his day to day routine:

Being a gadget-head, self-proclaimed Apple fanboy, and a developer, I could not help but be excited when the iPad was released. There have been other attempts at making a tablet computer, all of which have been failures, including Newton, Apple’s first attempt at this kind of device. But times have changed and due to the success of the iPhone, the world was finally ready for a device such as the iPad.

Bridging the gap between a laptop and a smartphone, the iPad aims to help bring ubiquitous computing to the masses. All of us with iPhones or other multi-touch devices were ready to interact with a device such as the iPad. The iPhone and other smartphones were great but you would never want to spend too much time browsing the internet with them I use my iPhone when I have a quick moment to check up on something, post or share small amounts of content, but I would never use it to do any kind of long term computing.

For work, the iPad is a dream. Around my home-office I use the iPad as a device for managing all of my tasks within Things for iPad. I can keep my tasks synced between my laptop so I know exactly what I have to accomplish for any project that I am working on wherever I am as long as I have my iPad. I also will use my iPad to keep up with our conversations in Present.ly on a separate screen.

With the iPad, I’ve replaced my laptop as my go-to device when I’m not working and want to do some quick browsing or reading around my home. My laptop functions as a desktop in my office. I used to have to disconnect all my wires, grab my extra power brick, and drag that into the living room. I certainly don’t miss doing that anymore. My laptop is now mainly for work and writing/composing heavy content and doing photo/video editing.

Portability with the iPad is a big win. I now have a device that I can use anywhere without having to worry about lugging around my big 17" laptop. I have spoken at two conferences since buying my iPad and I love that I can work on my slides on my iPad using the Keynote application and even display my presentation to the audience with it. Having a 3G iPad really opens up the places where I can stay connected and continue to work and keep up with everybody in my social circle.

As a developer, the iPad opens up a whole new world of possibilities. The iPhone was a huge success for app developers around the world. The iPad is already proving to be the same. With so much real-estate, new user-interface elements to work with, and new ways that people interact with the device, the future is exciting. Right now there are only about 4,000-5,000 iPad specific apps, which means there are so many great apps waiting to be created. Apple truly has created something that has changed the mobile landscape.

Brendan Lim, Director of Mobile Development

Our incredibly talented designer, David Potsiadlo, talks about the bright future of the iPad, how it has affected his productivity, and shares his musings on how the iPad will change web design in general.

As both a designer and general web & tech enthusiast, the introduction of an iPad into my daily life has been a wholly terrific experience. It’s like that cliche saying, “throwing a wrench in the gears”, but the exact opposite: instead, it makes everything to do with the web that much more exciting.

This enthusiasm applies to tablet and touchscreen computing in general. I am quite certain this has a tremendously bright future, as the overall joy of this new user experience is something special to behold. As a designer, this is quite the exciting time.

A few weeks into the post-iPad world, I am most fascinated with the shift in UX context introduced by this new medium. No longer can we assume users are either “sitting at a desk” or “browsing on their phone.” The iPad falls somewhere in between, and now “web view” and “mobile view” will both need to reexamine themselves to account for this new user type.

We are also looking at a whole new world of interface interaction. For example, websites whose UIs depend on hovering are in trouble, as this basic behavior isn’t possible without a mouse. Will we see iPad specific versions of each website? I wouldn’t necessarily count on it. Why not just make your standard website iPad friendly?

Finally, from a designer productivity point of view, the iPad has been a pleasant surprise. I’ve found the iPad has almost entirely replaced my laptop’s presence in my living room, but this hasn’t stopped me from needing a quick outlet to get a design idea down in visual form. The app Adobe Ideas (free) has some basic sketching capability which has allowed me to get some very basic wireframe ideas down quickly. I can then email these to myself, and skip the whole would-be process of sketching on paper, not losing that paper, digitizing that paper’s content, etc.

Overall, very excited about the floodgates this device has opened. I am sure we will all be surprised how this will change things in the next year and beyond.

David Potsiadlo, Web Designer

Our QA Manager, Maggie Lubberts, talks about justifying the purchase and how the iPad assists her in task management.

When Steve Jobs announced the impending arrival of the iPad I began doing what many gadget geeks began doing: justifying. If you have an iPhone, and you have a MacBook, why on earth do you need an iPad? It’s a difficult question to answer (especially when answering your spouse), and if I’m honest, I knew I was being a tiny bit ridiculous when I bought it. I could come up with a hundred different use case scenarios to justify my purchase (what if my laptop AND my iPhone were malfunctioning ... and I needed to check my checking account balance and play Settlers of Catan?!?)

At the time I thought I was being a silly early adopter (not the first time). After using one for a few weeks though, I can honestly say that I still use it daily, it’s my preferred method of accessing data online, and It has actually improved my workflow!

Many users have lamented over the lack of multitasking, but for me, this “missing” feature is a bonus all on its own. Whenever I want to get something done, compose an extended email, read through a technical manual, or organize a daily to-do list without interruption I pick up the iPad. I can complete a task, using the full depth of my attention, without being distracted by the million different social networks begging my attention at once. There aren’t any notifications from Instant Messaging or Present.ly to get in the way, and I can work from start to finish on a task which isn’t often something I can do on my laptop.

I’m in the business of QA, and it’s been nice to be able to give feedback to developers based on an iPad’s browsing experience; but even beyond that, I’ve started using it as an extension of my desktop. I’m constantly having to refer to lists, whether it’s a to-do list of the different projects I need to handle throughout the day or a list of release notes or tickets filed in Unfuddle or Pivotal. It’s nice to be able to have my lists on the iPad, almost as if it were another display. Since I work for the most part without an external monitor, the 13 inches of my laptop screen turns into pricey real-estate once I’m logged into all the tools I need to use daily. Being able to view a list of bugs on the iPad while verifying they’ve actually been fixed on my laptop means I have to spend far less time using spaces to find my list in another browser window. This has been a huge time-saver that I didn’t really expect, but have been genuinely enjoying.

Also, if you’re someone who thrives on to-do lists, Things for the iPad is amazing. It syncs wirelessly to your desktop list as well, and it has a super simple and incredibly user friendly interface for organization. It feels better being able to check the items off on the iPad, and displaying the list throughout the day where I can see it has been endlessly useful. I never reach for a pen and paper to jot down a note or an idea anymore; I pick up the iPad and use Adobe’s free “Ideas” app to sketch it out and then email it to myself. I can’t lose an email as easily as I can a tiny note card, or a list scribbled on the back of an old envelope, and it keeps my lists/ideas accessible from the cloud at all times, so I’m never caught without the information I need. As long as I have the iPad with me, I can update the information as the need arises.

I’m really excited to continue figuring out how the iPad can help me in my daily work life, and I’m still learning all the ways it is useful in my non-work life as well. My initial impression is this: If you like using the internet, you’ll like using an iPad. It feels like my mouse and keyboard have only been in the way of my accessing the www up to this point, and getting them out of the equation has allowed me to connect with the content I love to browse in a whole new and immersive way.

Maggie Lubberts, QA Manager

All three Intrideans dote on the portability of the device, the ease of task management, and how the iPad has placed itself in their homes as a bridge between an iPhone (which is too small to do any extended work on) and a laptop (which can be a beast to lug around all the time). In the last month, I’ve been watching people working on their iPads at bus stations, airports, restaurants, and coffee shops. It’s like the iPad was a device we never knew that we needed. Until Apple gave it to us.

• Read more about Mashable Now Available for iPad

“Mashable is excited to launch our new iPad app and we think Intridea has done a fantastic job. There’s high demand for Mashable on the iPad, and we think our readers will be as excited as we are about the launch”, Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable, Inc.

Mashable is one of the world’s largest blogs focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news, with more than 15 million monthly pageviews. We were very excited when approached to develop their iPad application. Mashable already had a very popular iPhone application and it was our job to figure out the best way to take advantage of the iPad’s increased real-estate and new user interface to be able to deliver something that all of their readers would enjoy.

One of the best things about the iPad is that it’s a wonderful device for reading. Whether you’re reading the news, a book, or a comic, the increased screen size makes the experience much more enjoyable. We wanted to make reading the latest articles on Mashable just as enjoyable. Not only can you see the latest news from all of their different news channels, but the articles themselves are formatted in a way that makes them very easy to read.

There are many other applications that allow you to read news on the iPad, but none of them take into account the way that you hold the iPad. Normally, when you hold the iPad with two hands, your thumbs are able to touch the screen. Other iPad applications have very un-intuitive ways of jumping to the next article by having small buttons on either the top left or top right corner of the window. We took into account the way that people hold their iPads and enabled them to easily go from article to article just by tapping on either side of the window.

Reading the latest news from Mashable is just some of what you can do with the application. With Mashable! for iPad, you can also share what you’re reading in many different ways. You can e-mail the article to a friend, share it on Twitter or Facebook, and you can also save it to Read Later on Instapaper.

Mashable! for iPad is now available for free on the App Store. Also, you can expect some exciting new features for Mashable! for iPad soon. There are some great new features that are in the works.

Intridea offers services for application development on all major mobile platforms, which include iPad, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Palm webOS. If you need help with your mobile application feel free to contact us for a quote.

• Read more about iPad Wallpaper Template for Photoshop

The iPad has arrived, so let the design fun commence! Featured here is an iPad wallpaper template in Photoshop (PSD) format (download), allowing you to easily create & test your new background creations with minimal layer nightmares.

The PSD is setup to let you view a single wallpaper layer (or layer group) in several common scenarios:

As you can see, you'll need to take into account how the app icons, bottom dock, and lock screen UI will interplay with your wallpaper – while also throwing the orientation variable into the mix (horizontal or vertical). Before we dive in, here is a crash course on how iPad wallpapers work. Quite simply:

The coolest thing about this PSD template is that you can view a single wallpaper layer in four different iPad viewing scenarios – all with absolute minimum in layer visibility headaches. How it works:

First, open the attached Photoshop template and paste/insert your 1024x1024 wallpaper image into the "Wallpapers" layer folder. Ensure your image is perfectly aligned within the template guides. Note: you'll want to hide the "iPad" layer group so it doesn't get in the way.

Once your image is in place, make the "iPad" layer group visible again. Enable visibility in either the horizontal or vertical layer sub-group, and then make visible either the lock screen or home screen layer -- all of the above to suit your desire.

Voila! An iPad of your desired viewing scenario will be overlayed on top of your wallpaper. Next, you can simply hide/show layers within the "iPad" group to see how your wallpaper looks in different situations. You'll never need to move your wallpaper layer.

With any hope, this template will be of great service to you. Download the PSD here.

Finally, I must give acknowledgements to teehan+lax for their excellent iPad GUI PSD, which was a helpful resource. DigitalCitizen.ca also has a helpful article I used to learn up on the subject. Check out both of these sites if you want to read more. Otherwise, go forth and design!