Leander Kahney's Blog, page 2298

Substrata's All Wood iPad Cases Are Gorgeous

Although only in the prototype phase right now, these wooden iPad cases Substrata look gorgeous.
Coming in flavors of dead tree flesh including walnut, zebrano, wenge, mahogany and maple, and shipping with both hinged and sliding lids, the Substrata iPad cases (replete with microsuede lining to prevent scratches) should be available in June for an [...:]

Goodbye Note Books: Colleges Offer Students iPads

Before it even hits stores, several US colleges have pledged to give iPads to students along with their orientation kits.
iRush schools include Seton Hill in Pennslyvania, Northwest Tech in Kansas and George Fox University in Oregon, where freshmen have been handed personal computers along with class schedules for the last 20 years.
The iPod Touch has [...:]

Starbucks Expands Virtual Wallet System To 1000 Target Locations

For about six months now, Starbucks has been testing a system in about a dozen Seattle and Silicon Valley stores that turns the iPhone into a virtual wallet, letting customers pay for lattes and the like with an app that displays a barcode read by a specialized reader at the counter.
But yesterday, Starbucks said the [...:]

Kleiner Perkins Doubles iFund to $200M

To mark it two-year anniversary, the Apple-centered iFund doubled in size to $200 million. Highlighting the iFund's addition of iPad investments, John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers waxed poetically: The tablet device "feels like you're touching the future."
Seven iFunded game developers: ng:moco (makers of Flick Fishing, Castlecraft, NBA Hotshot, Charadium, We Rule, [...:]

Official: Netflix for iPad App on April 3rd (Not an April Fool's Day Prank)

Update: Picture me boring a hole through my throbbing temples with my fingertips. PC World has just confirmed Netflix for the iPad. The pictures of the app are even hosted on Apple's servers and the app is listed on AppShopper, so short of a linkable announcement, this is as official as it gets. The Netflix [...:]

Report: Apple to Sell 200K-300K iPads this Weekend

Apple could sell 200,000 to 300,000 iPads this weekend, a sign early sales estimates were too conservative, one analyst told investors Thursday. Such volume mirrors that of the iPhone's launch, when the Cupertino, Calif. company sold 270,000 of the first iPhones. Apple may sell every iPad on hand, the analyst suggests.
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster now [...:]

Fry Meets Jobs In Time

As the iPad emerges, blinking, into the sunshine after its months of sequestration at 1 Infinite Loop, so the media machine grinds into action. We've seen dozens of iPad reviews published over the last 24 hours; now Time scoops them all with Stephen Fry interviewing Steve Jobs.
For those who don't know, Stephen Fry is well [...:]

I Don't Care That It's An April Fool, I Must Have One

From Think Geek comes the one April Fools joke that I really wish was real: the iCade. Bringing all your 1970s and 80s gaming memories back to life. In theory anyway.
Seen any other good April 1st gags while browsing around this morning?
I didn't see too many, I was too busy transferring all my files [...:]

Best iPad Quote: "It's Harry Potter's book. Everything Is Alive"

The best review of the iPad is from BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin, who brilliantly describes the joy of the iPad's touch interface.
But the best quote comes from Theo Gray, the creator of a magical new iPad education app — The Elements — a fantastic, interactive Periodic Table. (You can briefly see it in action in the [...:]

Early iPad Reviewers Reveal Marvel Comics App

When the iPad was first unveiled, the single thing use for it that excited me most was reading — but comics, not books. Though various publishers have tried to make digital comics a going concern over the years, it's never worked out. The problem was simple — no appropriate hardware. Doing a great digital comic [...:]