Media

5 Cool iPad Games that I’m Dying to Play

May 15, 2023 by Arnold Zafra

Reports had it there are already more than 3,000 apps available on the iPad Apps Store. Most of these apps are probably games ported from the iPhone to the iPad. Since I’m won’t be receiving my iPad until a couple of days more, I’ve scoured the iPad App Store looking for games that I will most likely play on my iPad. Look what I’ve found? Old iPhone favorites making their way to the iPad. I’ve got five of them listed.

Glyder 2 for iPad

I loved this game when I played it on my iPhone. The game environment is beautifully rendered, the animation was flawless and the graphics is definitely colorful. Can you just imagine how great it will look on a 10-inch HD display of the iPad? The game’s exclusive features for the iPad include – enhanced graphics, multiple controls, enhanced navigation, 3D world viewer and Facebook connectivity. (Price: $4.99) iTunes link. [Read more…] about 5 Cool iPad Games that I’m Dying to Play

iPad and iBooks Will Eventually Kill the Kindle

May 15, 2023 by Arnold Zafra

You don’t need to get your hands-on the iPad to realize that it has the potential to kill the Kindle unless Amazon does something drastic to make its boring gray, e-ink display into something colorful. The iPad supports full color display and the iBooks app for the iPad will transform your e-ebook reading experience into something colorful albeit a fun one.

I mean, just take a look at the sample screenshots of an e-book being rendered on the iPad using the iBooks apps. Rich, colorful graphics that accompanies e-books, be it children’s books, fiction, sci-fi or business-related, it will surely be more pleasant and appealing to read e-books on the iPad than it is on the Kindle. And don’t even get me started on the issue of readability and eye strain due to prolong use. You can always shut off your iPad and rest your eyes a bit if you think that your eyes are already strained. So, it’s not really a negative point of the iPad that it’s display was said to be not mean for prolong reading pleasures.

And for the iBookstore, I’m pretty sure electronic publishers will dive into the iPad wave pretty soon if they haven’t started doing so, yet. You don’t even have to worry if not too many publishers will not support the iPad. The Project Guttenberg with its thousands of public domain books will provide you with your e-book fix.

What Apple needs to do to complete its e-book market domination and successfully steal the thunder from Amazon is to make the iBookstore available outside the U.S. Especially as soon as Apple starts marketing the iPad to the international markets.

TweetDeck App Fully Optimized for the iPad

May 15, 2023 by Arnold Zafra

With the large screen real-estate that the iPad offers, I wasn’t really quite surprised that the first adopters among application developers would be those with mobile Twitter client apps. If you checked the iTunes iPad App Store right now, you’d find several Twitter apps for the iPad – both new and old ones ported to the new platform. One of these Twitter apps which happens to be also my favorite on mobile phones is TweetDeck.

Thankfully, the TweetDeck folks didn’t just ported their mobile TweetDeck app to the iPad platform but build a new application instead. In fact they’ve build two new interfaces – for portrait and landscape modes. TweetDeck for iPad also takes full use of the device’s multi-gesture features.

Feature-wise, TweetDeck for iPad lets you do practically everything that you can with its mobile phone versions. The app lets you fully manage all your Twitter accounts, check web pages from within TweetDeck, use columns to manage your real-time feed, sync your data with the desktop and iphone client, iPad gesture based navigation, geolocation data and map interface, and of course all the basic Twitter functions such as composing tweets, retweeting and sending DMs.

And guess what? TweetDeck for iPad is a free download. Get it from the iTunes iPad App Store once you received your iPad.

Or watch this video showing the TweetDeck for iPad in action.

Sony Feels the iPad Heat, Lowers Price of its E-Reader

May 11, 2023 by Arnold Zafra

Over at 901am, I’ve been covering some hot news about the Apple iPad which as you all know by now is about to be released on April 3. Lately, the iPad has been getting some news mileage with emphasis mostly on how good the iPad would be as an e-book reader. Yes, that’s despite the fact that it was not made solely for the purpose of reading e-books.

But then, it’s inevitable especially since Apple is also prepping up its own e-bookstore of sorts, the iBookstore app. Once the iPads land on the hands of those who pre-ordered since two weeks ago, I’m pretty sure e-book distributors will start pouring in.

So, if you’re Sony who has an e-book reader which is not really doing well, what would be your best move to compete with the likes of the iPad and Kindle? Of course, reduce the price of your e-book reader to make it more competitive.

And that’s what Sony just did – lowered the price of its basic e-book reader the Sony Pocket Reader from $199 to $169. That puts the Pocket Reader at $90 cheaper than the least expensive model of the Kindle. And of course way cheaper than the iPad which is currently selling for $499 for the cheapest version.

Actually this was predicted by Forrester analyst James McQuivey – that is single purpose e-reader device such as the Pocket Reader will have a price drop of as low as $99 by next year. This is to make these device competitive enough against multi-purpose devices such as the iPad.

So, are you most likely to get the Sony Pocket Reader instead of the iPad or Kindle now?

TV is Not Dead! Americans are Still Using it Together with Internet and Mobile Phones

May 11, 2023 by Arnold Zafra

Here’s a rather surprising findings by Nielsen which debunks the myth that TV is on its way to extinction in favor of the Internet and mobile phones. According to Nielsen’s report, Americans have in fact increased their overall media usage and media multitasking activities by using TV simultaneously as they connect to the Internet and use their mobile phones.

The Nielsen report called “Three Screen Report” tracks consumption across TV, Internet and mobile phones. The report showed that in the last quarter of 2009, TV consumption and Internet use combined have reached three and a half hours monthly. This is a 35% growth from the third quarter of 2009. In addition, 60% of TV viewers are watching TV while using the Internet at the same time.

Nielsen Company media product leader Matt O’Grady says that using the Internet while watching TV have given TV viewers a unique on-screen and off-screen relation with TV programming.

“The initial fear was that Internet and mobile video and entertainment would slowly cannibalize traditional TV viewing, but the steady trend of increased TV viewership alongside expanded simultaneous usage argues something quite different,” said O’Grady.

The study also found that on the average, Americans watched 35 hours of TV per week and two hours of timeshifted TV via DVR. This is attributed to the fact that DVR provides them with added convenience. At the same time the growth of HD programming and flatscreen TVs have also contributed the renewed interest with watching TV programs. The availability of more channels and choices due to digital delivery be it via cable or satellite are also contributing factors.

Other findings of the study include – increase in online video consumption as well as increase in the active mobile video users courtesy of the booming smartphone market.