Category Archives: iPad 2
Camera Quality Video Test: iPad 2 vs Motorola Xoom vs Galaxy Tab [video]
Apple’s iPad 2 comes complete with dual-cameras, but the question has been just how good are they? Macworld has tested Apple’s new slate against its main competition to see just how well it stacks up. Unfortunately, the results aren’t encouraging.
During the tests, they compared the iPad 2′s video and still photo prowess with those of its competition, namely the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Still photos were tested in various categories ranging from overall picture quality to color reproduction while video was tested in both well-lit and low-light conditions.
In all tests, the Motorola Xoom came out favorably, with its 5 megapixel rear-facing camera. It’s the highest spec’ed camera in the three tablets tested so good results were expected.
The 3 megapixel camera aboard the Samsung Galaxy Tab proved to be middling in all tests except video and especially the one designed to test low-light video quality. Here the results were clearly the poor in all video categories when compared to the alternatives.
Apple’s new iPad 2′s 0.69 megapixel affair proved to be surprisingly adequate in video testing, though still photography isn’t the camera’s strong point.
One thing is for sure though, none of the tablets can compete with the impressive iPhone 4′s shooter, with the smartphone also being tested as a benchmark.
Whether any of the tests mean anything to buyers remains to be seen. It’s debatable just how much action the built-in cameras will see past a few snaps here and there. Augmented Reality apps should function as expected though, dispute the lackluster performances from the current crop of hardware.
Still Image Quality:
Time Warner App To Bring Live TV To The iPad
The Associated Press reports that Time Warner, which is the second largest cable company in the US with 12.4 million subscribers, is planning to launch an iPad app that will bring live television to the iPad.
The iPad app will allow Time Warner customers to watch 30 cable channels including Comedy Central, MTV, Fox News etc on their iPad.
Time Warner Cable President Rob Marcus said in a statement:
“We are tremendously excited about this app, which is the first of many that will allow our customers to harness the power of their tablet-type devices,”
The iPad app will be available tomorrow for free in the App Store. But according to Associated Press:
[..] it will only work for people who subscribe to both video and Internet service from the New York-based cable company. Even then, it only works in the home, when the iPad is connected to the company’s cable modem via a Wi-Fi router.
You can checkout the discussion between Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, CTO Mike LaJoie, VP of Web Services Jason Gaedtke and Director of Digital Communications Jeff Simmermon where they’re taking a look at the prototype for their iPad app.
iPad 2 Smart Cover Teardown Reveals 31 Built-In Magnets Draw The Smart Cover To iPad
According to us, the coolest thing that Apple unveiled at the ‘Come See What 2011 Will Be Year Of’ event was the iPad Smart Cover and not the iPad 2 as we more or less expected the new features and improvements based on the rumors and speculations.
Folks at iFixit were as intrigued as us and decided to disassemble it to find out whether: “how it attached perfectly to the iPad” and “Apple was using cutting-edge magnets with special properties”.
iFixit have discovered the following things from the teardown, which we found interesting:
There are a total of THIRTY ONE magnets within the iPad 2 and Smart Cover: 10 magnets in the iPad 2, and a whopping 21 magnets inside the Smart Cover. They’re the reason why the cover works so well with the iPad 2.
Sadly, none of the 31 magnets inside the devices had any special properties. All of them were the standard, two-pole kind, but they were arrayed in such a way that made clamping the Smart Cover to the iPad 2 quite easy.
The Smart Cover has one dedicated magnet that turns off the iPad 2′s screen. The rest are used to either clamp to the iPad on the right side (the far-right column of magnets), or to form the triangular shape used to create a stand for the iPad 2.
A steel plate on the far-left side of the Smart Cover attaches to 15 of the cover’s magnets (on the far-right) in order to form the triangular base. In fact, the majority of those 15 magnets are specifically there to assemble the triangular base. Only four of them actually clamp to the iPad 2 when the cover is in place. A steel-to-magnet bond is weaker than a magnet-to-magnet bond, and so they needed lots more magnets to prevent the case from literally falling apart during use.
The far-right row of magnets clamps the Smart Cover to the iPad 2. The magnets in the iPad 2 had their polarity displayed: + – + – . The alternating polarity of the magnets in the iPad 2 was complemented by the opposite alternating polarity of the magnets in the Smart Cover (- + – +), ensuring that the Smart Cover always sits in the same orientation on the iPad 2.
There’s also a row of magnets on the left side of both products. The iPad 2′s magnets are actually encased into the side of the device, and are used to securely clamp the iPad 2 to the Smart Cover’s frame.
iPad 2 Problems: Some Users Reporting Yellow Screen Tinting And Light Bleeding Issue
Some early iPad 2 users are reporting couple of issues with their shiny new gadget.
Some users have observed a yellow tint on the iPad 2 screen and some users are reporting that they’re experiencing excessive level of light bleeding from the edges of the LCD panel.
The yellow tint is similar to the issue reported when iPhone 4 was launched. At that time, the issue was attributed to the bonding agent used to bond the layers of glass not getting enough time to set. The issue seemed to resolve itself after a few days. It needs to be seen if the iPad 2 issue will also go away after a few days.
Yellow Screen tinting issue that was observed on iPhone 4
MacRumors speculates:
With any brand new launch, Apple seems to be shipping the units as quickly as they are manufacturing them, preventing the required time for the bonding agent to set.
Engadget reports about the second issue:
The second issue, which is being conflated with the first, is characterized by light bleeding through from the outer edges of the LCD panel. The bleeding is most noticeable when watching a dark scene in a movie or using an app with a black background as demonstrated in the picture above and video embedded after the break. For those affected, the issue can be minimized or exacerbated by adjusting the brightness in settings.
Folks at I Am Phones have also published a video to show the light bleeding issue:
BREAKING: Apple iPad 2 Has Been Jailbroken !
Yes you read that right ! The famous iPhone developer and hacker Comex, who previously released userland jailbreaks such as Spirit and JailbreakMe, has done the magic yet again !
@chpwn: by @comex: http://t.co/osP6lz
@comex: would’ve had it yesterday if I didn’t have to spend 1.5 days looking for a replacement exploit (which came from a most unexpected place…)
@iphone_dev: Congrats to @comex for jailbreaking yet another brand new device (iPad2) while 2500 miles away from it!
In the image attached above, you can clearly see a jailbroken iPad 2 running Cydia.
There is no ETA yet. It will be released when it is done.
We will keep you updated ! Stay tuned !
