Gizmodo says Paper Monsters is a well-balanced little adventure, pretty to look at, and a nice diversion on a Friday afternoon. Dive into the world of Paper Monsters and watch a living world made out of paper, cardboard, and a few cotton balls unfold right before your eyes. Paper Monsters takes all of the classic 2d platforming elements, combines them with cutting edge graphics and then packs it onto your iPhone or iPad. Usually cost $2.99, is Free for a while – Grab it. Here is the App Store link.
–FEATURES–
•Classic 2d sidescrolling gameplay with gorgeous 3d environments.
•iCade fully supported
•Original and adorable characters
•Awesome original soundtrack – headphones recommended!
•Fun under water and flying powerups.
•Two control types: “floating” Joystick or classic touch pad
•Game Center Leaderboards
•Adventure and Hunt for hidden Game Center Achievements
•16 Large Levels across 4 unique worlds
•Tons of secret areas!
•High score dash mode for endless replay value!
9to5Mac covered this interesting video which was originally covered by marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz who got an inside look at Foxconn, the manufacturing plant where Apple’s iPad and iPhones are made. Schmitz posted a video showing our first-ever look at the assembly process of an iPad as it goes down the assembly line at the Foxconn plant in Shanghai, China.These workers switch positions every few days while making $14 a day when first starting:
Nielsen’s latest survey that showed over 90% of United States smartphone buyers are choosing iOS or Android, research firm comScore today released its data of the top smartphone platforms and OEMs in the U.S. The survey included more than 30,000 people over a three-month period ending February 2012.
The research found Android was up 17% points from a year ago with 50.1% of the U.S. smartphone market. In comparison, Apple’s 30.2% accounted for an increase of 5% points from the same period a year ago.
Google passed the 50% milestone for the first time during February 2012. The numbers represent a 3.2% point increase over previous three-month period for Google, and a 1.5% point increase for Apple. ComScore goes on to present the follow statistics:
When it comes to the top mobile phone manufacturers (including non-smartphones) in the U.S., Samsung takes the top spot with 25.6-percent of the market for the three-month period ending February 2012. LG was close behind with 19.4-percent, followed by Apple with 13.5-percent, Motorola at 12.8-percent, and HTC at 6.3-percent
The first customer satisfaction survey since the release of the new iPad shows that owners are almost completely smitten with their new devices. Changewave surveyed 200 new iPad owners from March 22 to March 28 and found that those “Very Satisfied” were up 8% from the iPad 2 to an impressive 82%.
Coming to the heat “issues”? Not a big problem is what the survey says.
The all new iPad’s review is out and everyone who got a chance to check the iPad loves it. Here is the breakdown:
USA Today’s Ed Baig: If you’re a tablet newbie, there’s no better choice on the market than an iPad, provided — and this is a pretty big if — price isn’t an issue and you don’t want a tablet that would fit in your pocket, such as the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire.
The New York Times’ David Pogue: The new iPad doesn’t introduce anything that we haven’t seen before, either in the iPhone or in rival tablets. There’s no Steve Jobs “one more thing” moment here; Apple just took its white-hot iPad and added the latest screen, battery and cellular technologies.
The Washington Post: Let’s be clear: the new iPad is in a class by itself, just as its predecessor was. As the latest product in a lineage of devices that defined this category, the iPad continues to stand head and shoulders above the competition. With the addition of the Retina display, LTE, more memory, and a more powerful CPU, Apple has absolutely held onto the iPad’s market position as the dominant player and product to beat.
Walt Mossberg: Apple’s iPad could be described as a personal display through which you see and manipulate text, graphics, photos and videos often delivered via the Internet. So, how has the company chosen to improve its wildly popular tablet? By making that display dramatically better and making the delivery of content dramatically faster.
TechCrunch: ”Once you see and use the new iPad, there will be no going back…get the new iPad”
This is crazy… ChangeWave Research is point this very interesting survey that shows roughly one out of five companies plan to purchase tablets for their employees in the second quarter of 2012. A whopping 84% of companies that plan to buy tablets said they would purchase iPads, a seven point increase from November 2011.
Another interesting set of statistics sit in the carriers that businesses plan on going with for their future tablet purchases – notice that there’s also a category for “no wireless service” for the wi-fi only models of tablets in the market too. The newest iPad is amongst the tablets now that are available on 4G LTE networks including AT&T and Verizon, this certainly contributing to the fact that both of these providers have the lead in this chart at 30 and 29% of the tablet market. The no wireless service category has nearly the least amount of respondents with just 11% of the market while Sprint, a network with next to no options for connected tablets, sits at the bottom with 4%.
When purchasing a connected tablet, 30% of companies would choose AT&T versus 29% which would rather have Verizon, while Sprint comes in a distant third with 4%. 11% of companies would choose a Wi-Fi-only slate. In anticipation of Apple’s third-generation iPad, corporate interest in the Apple tablet increased in February 2012, while demand for tablets from rival vendors decreased.
By now most of us know about this rumor that Apple might be most probably launching a mini version of iPad which would sport a 7.85 inch wide screen. This so called iPad mini will also bring a slim bezel display, as per Digitimes sources.
The 7.85-inch iPad reportedly is designed to take on comparable models from Amazon and Samsung Electronics in order to maintain Apple’s leadership position, said the sources, adding that Samsung seems is expected to launch its next generation 7- and 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab tablet PCs soon.
These 7.85-inch iPads may not adopt Retina displays but is likely to use IPS/FFS panels from LG Display and probably AU Optronics (AUO), the sources indicated. The 7.85-inch iPads will target the sub-US$300 segment and are likely to be priced US$249-299, the sources estimated.
Apple has confirmed in an official statement that it has now completely sold out of its pre-order iPad stock in less than 5 days. By comparison, last year’s initial stock of the iPad 2 dried up within hours of going up for presale. Orders for the iPad 2 kicked off at 1 a.m. PT and quickly went from being delivered on launch day to three to five days later, then to two to three weeks later. Availability of the tablet was later further constrained to up to three to four weeks for new buyers. An Apple spokesperson told CNET:
“Customer response to the new iPad has been off the charts and the quantity available for pre-order has been purchased” adding, “Customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date. Beginning Friday, March 16, the new iPad will be available for purchase at Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers on a first come, first-served basis.”
The new iPad is priced at $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. And $629, $729, and $829 for 4G. It will be available on March 16th in the US and is available for pre-order now. It will be available from March 23 for 32 other countries. The iPad 2 will continue to be sold for $399 in a 16GB flavor and $529 for a WiFi + 3G 16GB model.
The new iPad will launch on Friday, March 16th in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, U.K. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Apple says that it will bring the tablet to 26 other countries by March 23rd, making it the company’s fastest product rollout ever.
iPhoto for iOS just released yesterday. Bloggers who got access to the new iPad noticed something strange, some of the map features don’t have that traditional, Google Maps look to them. Actually these map are not Google maps anymore. They are based on a platform using OpenStreetMap combined with Apple’s own map tiles. Here is what OpenStreetMap’s blog is saying:
“Yesterday Apple launched iPhoto, its photo management app, for the iPad and iPhone… and we’re rather pleased to find they’re the latest to switch to OpenStreetMap.
The desktop version of iPhoto, and indeed all of Apple’s iOS apps until now, use Google Maps. The new iPhoto for iOS, however, uses Apple’s own map tiles – made from OpenStreetMap data (outside the US).”
Since 2009, Apple has been acquiring mapping technology like Placebase, Poly9 and C3 Technologies. Presumably, the company has been looking for an alternative mapping service to Google’s, since the two are operating system rivals. However, Google Maps is the most widely used mapping service around and Apple probably realized that its users would be comfortable with its familiarity.
Apple isn’t the only company that is moving away from Google Maps. Social networking website Foursquare also recently moved to another mapping service using OpenStreetMaps for its data. Real estate company StreetEasy did the same this past January. It looks like Google Maps is losing its shininess among those needing mapping services in the digital world.
With the launch of ‘The New iPad’, iPad 2 has been dropped by as much as $100 in some stores in the US. Apple announced it would drop the price of the 16GB iPad 2 to $399 with the Wi-Fi + 3G model discounted to $529. The new iPad, which would start at $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $629 for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 4G model.
BestBuy is now advertising not just the 16GB models, but the entire iPad 2 lineup, for $100 off the usual pricing. On the other hand, RadioShack confirmed that you can now preorder the new iPad by purchasing a $50 gift card that can also go towards the final purchase price. Its website is listing all iPad 2?s as on sale in-store. RadioShack’s full press release below also outlines its trade-in program for old iPads.
