Wow.
Monday March 12 2012
ON THE vast mobile internet battlefield, it ranks as a small, but significant, manoeuvre. Unlike its desktop forebear,Apple’s iPhoto app for the newiPaddoes not useGoogle Maps.
It is also the first of any ofApple’siOSapps to abandonGoogle Maps. Instead, iPhoto foriPad, an advanced photo editing app, relies on the OpenStreetMap Foundation, a British not-for-profit that offers free mapping data gathered by a worldwide army of 400,000 volunteers.
The switch was unannounced and came as news to the Foundation this week when iPhoto was released.
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![Sweet! This is a major technology upgrade without a price upgrade: new display, new camera, new processor and new networking.
The new iPad starts at $499 and has retina display, 5-megapixel camera (with the same optics sensor from the iPhone 4S) and 1080p video recording. It will be available March 16 in black and white, powered by A5X chip (with quad-core graphics) and support 4G LTE networks. It’s 9.4 millimeters thick and weighs in at 1.4 pounds.
Wi-Fi only iPads will cost $499 for 16 GB, $599 32 GB and $699 for 64 GB, while 4G versions will cost $629 for 16 GB, $729 32 GB and $829 for 64 GB. Pre-orders start today, and the devices will be in stores March 16 in these 10 countries: U.S., UK, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Singapore and Austria.
Apple is working on two LTE versions of the iPad with AT&T, Verizon in the U.S., as well as Rogers, Telus and Bell in Canada. Both LTE U.S. models will be 3G ready, too.
The new Apple TV supports full 1080p HD and will remain $99.
(via Live From the Apple iPad Event [LIVE BLOG])](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0j3wqXX4I1qaoramo1_500.jpg)
![The notion of “Wheels for the Mind” rolls back in with the New Year. It seems like “grandson of HyperCard”
Apple is scheduled to host an education-related event on January 19 – shrouded with a veil of mystery, as always. A new report from Ars Technica says the company is about to unveil a set of tools to create interactive e-books.
Previous rumors said that Apple will show no new devices, and that the event will center around Apple’s new partnerships with textbook publishers.
If this new report is true, the event might turn out to be much more significant. Ars Technica’s sources say Apple’s about to present new authoring tools described as “GarageBand for e-books,” making it easy for everyone to create interactive digital books. The company also plans to expand its platform to distribute these e-books to iPhone and iPad users.
Apple, who currently supports the ePub 2 e-book standard (with some additions) is also expected to announce support for the ePub 3 standard for iBooks.
(via Apple to Introduce “GarageBand for E-Books” [RUMOR])](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxy0xhrcgm1qaoramo1_400.jpg)
![It’s finally here, the last of the technologies promised at this year’s watershed WWDC. It’s a little late, it’s a little buggy, but Mashable approves. To wit:
iTunes Match is now available and ready for sign-ups.
Apple introduced the service back at WWDC 2011; it’s a way to access all your iTunes music via the cloud, for a fee.
Similar to Amazon’s Cloud Player and Google Music, iTunes Match offers users the ability to access their music libraries — whether tracks were purchased via iTunes or not — from iTunes on a Mac or PC and from iOS 5 devices, including the Apple TV 2.
The service is $24.99 a year. For that $25, users can upload up to 25,000 tracks to the iTunes Cloud (past iTunes purchases do not count against that total) and access their tunes on up to 10 devices.
(via iTunes Match Has Us on Cloud Nine [REVIEW])](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lupc8yDjWA1qaoramo1_500.jpg)
