Both guys have good points. I write for an Apple blog (OK two) so it is a business expense/no brainer for me. On the eve of pre-order, are any of you out there still on the fence?

This might be one of my first purchases.

Are we starting to see our first iPad applications in the App Store?  Flickr just got updated to 3.2.  As far as we know, that means iPad, doesn't it?    Too bad the iPad doesn't have a camera:(  Thanks Jan!

Update: Tweetie 2 was updated for 3.2 today as well. (thanks commenters and Tweeters!)

We've heard numerous reports today that Apple Corporate customers are getting calls from their reps asking how many iPads they want.  Orders are then taken over the phone.  They still have to wait until April 3rd but they are at the front of the queue.  How nice.

In other news, these corporate reps are saying that individuals will be limited to two iPads/person initially until supply catches up with demand globally...which might be awhile.

Is Apple finally showing the suits some love?

According to an Apple PR rep, customers can pre-order online at apple.com at 5:30am Pacific time on Friday, March 12. That's 8:30 AM for you East Coasters. All models will be available for pre-order and wifi models will arrive on April 3rd, 3G models in late April.  We'll have a link as soon as it becomes available.

via TUAW.

Safari 4.05 is out. Hit Software Update or go here to update yourself.  Best comment so far: "Still has flash...."

You'll need to do a restart(!).

Developers have been combing through the recent build of the iPhone OS SDK and have found new references to multitasking in a files throughout the SDK.  The below mention of a "multitasking dialog box" is but one example:

Many of Apple's built-in applications already multitask, including phone.app, iPod.app, Safari.app, Mail.app, etc. so theoretically, the dialog box in this case could refer to current functionality.

Thanks AL!

The interesting thing about Steve Jobs' $5.5 Billion (making him the 136th richest person, up from 3.6Billion/172nd richest last year) in assets is that only around $1 billion of that is from Apple.  His Pixar-sold-to-Disney shares are worth $4.2 billion, down from the original $7.2 billion at the time of the deal.

Jobs did completely cash out of Apple (at not a great time) after his first stint and used some of that money to buy and grow Pixar and start NeXT.  But, Apple's market cap has gone from $4 billion in 1997 when he started to over $200 billion this week.  That's 50 times the value if you've been sitting on AAPL Stock since then.  Considering Apple was in a death spiral at the time he returned, you can pretty much chalk all of the $200 billion up to the guy.  That is a lot of shareholder value.

So it is without much question, that he's been a bargain for Apple over the past 13 years.

Also, not a fan of that picture from AP/Forbes.

In a word, yes, although most people may just choose to bring their iPads when they drive rather than leave one mounted in the car.

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ZDNet reports that they've heard rumors that there will be a new Mac Pro next week:

I’m getting tips in from sources who claim that Apple is set to revamp its high-end Mac Pro line, adding a ‘hexacore’ Core i7-980x model to the line up.

All information points to this happening next Tuesday, March 16th.

The Core i7-980x is Intel’s first six-core part. Here’s the spec:

3.33GHz (TurboBoost to 3.6GHz), 6 cores / 12 threads, 32nm architecture, Socket LGA1366 130W TDP

Separately, we've heard there could be a release as early as Friday.  I'd rather see a Core i7 Mac Mini though.

In somewhat related news, Maya 2011 64-bit was released today.

The most recent iPhone SDK removes those VideoChat files we found in the previous version of the SDK.  The big question: Did Apple remove them for the big camera surprise or did they remove them because there ain't gonna be a surprise?  Don't get your hopes up.

vs. our previous post:

On the surface, the latest iPhone 3.2 Beta 4 SDK didn't have much new information.  Diving a little deeper however, we find some very exciting news.  

In the gestures folder, you'll see two new types of commands (3Tap.plist and LongPress.plist) that are certainly not implemented in the current 3.1 iPhone SDK.  

Apple is likely allowing developers to use these capabilities in the next versions of the OS.  We might even see these in the shipping version of the iPad.    Thanks AL!

This Computerworld article sounds about right. Segmentation is Apple's friend in this case as all of the competitors are scrambling and confusing consumers to become #2.  Even though Apple is the 51st ARM tablet because the A4 is an ARM design, it clearly stands out from the pack as THE tablet.  The hype around the iPad is easily bigger than all of the other Joojoos/Slates combined.

I think the tablet game is going to play out like this:  You'll have the other ARM tablets on the low end (Dell, etc) that cost less than the iPad and pick up the audience that can't justify the $500 entry cost.  Then you'll have the Intel Atom tablets (JooJoo/HP) priced about the same as the iPad but with more "features" (cameras, Adobe Flash, etc.) that may appeal to a select few in the corporate market.  You'll also have the eReaders that will become marginalized because of their lack of important features and color screens.

Apple has a big head start on everyone both in mindshare and in OS maturity.  With weeks left until the launch of the "Year of the Tablet", its hard to see any competitors even coming close to Apple's iPad.

Update: Fortune has a similar piece

Quad-Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4850, SSD Drive all in a Mini body. Price: $1000.

Here's how...

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As a Mifi user already, I've decided to forgo the 3G version of the iPad and stick with Wifi.  The reason is simple.  I already use the Mifi to connect my MacBook Pro to the Internet when I am away from home/Wifi.  Why would I get another plan when I already have 5GB of data/ month on a much better wireless carrier (and an iPhone plan with AT&T)?   If I didn't have the Mifi, I'd be tempted to jailbreak my iPhone and use it as a Mifi.

Certainly there have to be a lot of people out there who need wireless data on the go and would rather be able to connect to two (up to five) devices?  That's what Verizon is thinking.

Engadget shows that Verizon is going after people like me with this internal Verizon iPad positioning document.  

AT&T's CEO is thinking people won't want the 3G iPad. He might be right. (or not)

Fortune reports that Apple is going after handset manufacturers over what it sees at infringement of its IP.  In January '09 Tim Cook said:

"we will not stand for having our IP ripped off and we'll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal."

Jonathan Schwartz (AKA My Little Pony), the recently ousted CEO of Sun, says today in his blog that Steve Jobs threatened to sue Sun for their Project Looking Glass and its graphical effects.

In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass*, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” (IP = Intellectual Property = patents, trademarks and copyrights.) If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.”

That's when Schwartz had a Delicious Monster moment

My response was simple. “Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurrence – do you own that IP?” Concurrence was a presentation product built by Lighthouse Design, a company I’d help to found and which Sun acquired in 1996. Lighthouse built applications for NeXTSTEP, the Unix based operating system whose core would become the foundation for all Mac products after Apple acquired NeXT in 1996. Steve had used Concurrence for years, and as Apple built their own presentation tool, it was obvious where they’d found inspiration. “And last I checked, MacOS is now built on Unix. I think Sun has a few OS patents, too.” Steve was silent.

He also goes on to talk about Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer and their Office protection racket. A great read.

Paul Bonanos today breaks out some information on the background of the iTunes LP story.  From his Apple sources, it sounds like Apple made a concession to the labels to build iTunesLP to get DRM-free music. 

I’m told by an industry source who preferred to remain anonymous that iTunes LP wasn’t Apple’s idea in the first place. Rather, it’s the result of the same renegotiations between Apple and the major record labels that yielded DRM-free songs and flexible pricing early last year, a concession by Cupertino to make a gesture in favor of album sales as consumers increasingly show a preference for digital singles.

There are now 29 iTunesLPs, up from 12 at launch.  Everyone thought that the tablet was going to be the perfect platform for the iTunesLP format but Steve Jobs only gave music a minute at the iPad announcement and none of that time was for iTunesLP.

Perhaps the reason for the slow uptake is the original high costs of producing in the format.  

One person who worked on an iTunes LP project said Apple subsidized the initial group of LP editions, which were created by the company’s handpicked third-party developer at costs of up to $60,000. All are issued in “deluxe edition” releases that feature extra tracks, typically priced a few dollars higher than iTunes’ customary $9.99. Neither Apple nor anyone else I spoke with was able to break out sales figures, but sources in various parts of the music industry agreed that the financial impact of iTunes LP on record sales has been tiny, if it’s had any effect at all.

iTunesLP development has recently been opened up for indie developers which should be able to build LP development price down from the first iTunesLPs.  That hasn't yet given iTunesLP much traction however.  That might require Apple's blessing, something a "concession" probably won't get.

The WSJ today reports that the big announcement that Cisco's been hyping all week is actually a faster router.  While that may not be as exciting a s a new tablet device (or it may be depending on your tastes), it will hopefully have some effect on Apple customers.  The WSJ profiled AT&T and specifically their wireless (read:iPhone) customers who are the major catalyst for new broadband:

AT&T, meanwhile, said the 100-gigabit backbone Internet network would support growing wireless and wired data and traffic "for years to come." In particular, AT&T has dealt with the explosive growth in wireless data, primarily driven by the Apple Inc. iPhone, among other smart phones.  The router "allows us to serve volumes of traffic that we need to serve," said Keith Cambron, CEO of AT&T Labs.

AT&T has stated that they are working hard on bringing up their wireless speeds but first must upgrade their backhaul.  That's where the Cisco CSR-3 would come in handy, delivering much more data over the same lines.AT&T have also stated that they don't anticipate much additional traffic from Apple's iPad - something we'll start to understand at the end of April.

Apple today released the iPad/iPhone OS 3.2 Beta 4 SDK.  The build 10M2144 is 2.5GB and can be downloaded from developer.apple.com/iphone.