Erik Qualman's Blog, page 695
March 2, 2011
iPad 2 Faster, Thinner, Lighter with HD Cameras
iPad 2 is here.
The new iPad has the following improvements:
iPad 2 is 33% thinner
iPad 2 is 15% lighter
iPad 2 has dual-core processing = faster surfing, movies, FaceTime video calls and multi-tasking
9x graphic performance enhances gameplay, photos, video editing and animations in presentations
iPad 2 maintains 10 hour battery life
2 HD cameras to enable FaceTime for iPad 2
Photobooth = fun
iPad 2 smart cover protects the screen and doubles as a stand
AirPlay: music, photos and video can stream wirelessly to your HDTV and home speakers
Video mirroring: Plug your iPad into your HDTV – even when you rotate from portrait to landscape or zoom will work
Comes in white or black
Shipping starts March 11 for U.S.
26 other countries will get the device March 25
iPad 2 covers come in 10 different colors
More iPad 2 Details (courtesy AppleInsider):
The new iPad 2 is one-third thinner than the first-generation model, just 8.8mm thick, even thinner than the iPhone 4. At just 1.3 pounds, it is lighter than the previous 1.5 pound iPad. It will carry the same starting price of $499 for the entry-level 16GB Wi-Fi-only model.
The device will begin shipping in just over a week, on Friday, March 11, in the U.S., while 26 more overseas countries will get the device on March 25.
It also has rear and front facing cameras for recording video, taking photos, and FaceTime video chat. The new iPad also has a new A5 dual-core processor which offers up to 9 times faster graphics processing. Apple said the faster speeds of the new processor will not have any greater power consumption than the previous A4 processor.
The new iPad 2 will be available in two colors — black and white — and will be available on both AT&T and Verizon 3G networks from day one. It also sports the same 10-hour battery life.
A new accessory cable will also offer mirrored HDMI video out to HDTVs for 1080p high-definition output. The $39 cable allows users to charge their iPad while using the video out feature.
Another accessory announced by Apple is a magnetic "smart cover," which covers the front of the device. Covering the front of the device automatically locks the device, while taking it off will unlock it. Microfibers on the screen cover are said to clean the iPad 2 display, while magnets will automatically align the cover on the screen.
A video demonstrating the abilities of the case, including using it as a stand to prop up the iPad, was shown to the audience. Apple will sell a polyurethane version of its case for $39, and a leather version for $69.
iPad 2 Technical Specifications:
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi + 3G
Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm)
Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm)
Depth: 0.34 inch (8.8 mm)
Weight: 1.33 pounds (601 g) Wi-Fi, 1.34 pounds (607 g) 3G
16GB
32GB
64GB
Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
Wi-Fi + 3G model: UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi + 3G for Verizon model: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)
9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously
1GHz dual-core Apple A5 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
Back camera: Video recording, HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio; still camera with 5x digital zoom
Front camera: Video recording, VGA up to 30 frames per second with audio; VGA-quality still camera
Tap to control exposure for video or stills
Photo and video geotagging over Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi:
Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system
3G:
Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network
Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system
30-pin dock connector port
3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
Built-in speaker
Microphone
Micro-SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
Three-axis gyro
Accelerometer
Ambient light sensor
Wi-Fi
Digital compass
Assisted GPS (3G only)
Cellular (3G only)
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Audio formats supported: HE-AAC (V1 and V2), AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
User-configurable maximum volume limit
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through with Apple Digital AV Adapter (sold separately)
Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 1080p with Apple Digital AV Adapter or Apple VGA Adapter (cables sold separately)
Video out support at 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable
Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)
Language support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Catalan, and Vietnamese
Keyboard support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France), French (Canadian), French (Switzerland), German, Traditional Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin, Zhuyin, Cangjie, Wubihua), Simplified Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin, Wubihua), Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese (Romaji, Ten Key), Japanese (Kana), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Estonian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Flemish, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian (Cyrillic/Latin), Catalan, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Macedonian, and Cherokee
Dictionary support (enables predictive text and autocorrect) for English (U.S.), English (UK), French, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese (Romaji), Japanese (Kana), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Flemish, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Catalan, Vietnamese, and Cherokee
Support for playback of closed-captioned content
VoiceOver screen reader
Full-screen zoom magnification
White on black display
Mono audio
Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later
iTunes 10.2 or later recommended (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
iTunes Store account
Internet access
PC with USB 2.0 port
Windows 7; Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later
iTunes 10.2 or later recommended (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
iTunes Store account
Internet access
iPad
Dock Connector to USB Cable
10W USB Power Adapter
Documentation
Arsenic-free display glass
BFR-free
Mercury-free LED-backlit display
PVC-free
Recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure
Related stories: New MacBook
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Infographic: Social Media Site Stereotypes
Great infographic supplied by Flowtown via Ethan Bloch
Visit the Flowtown store if you would like to purchase a poster of this graphic.
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March 1, 2011
China Blocks LinkedIn
While China blocked Google, Facebook, Twitter and others, LinkedIn quietly remained unscathed. That was until Thursday when China blocked the social business networking site. The China block was in reaction to user Jasmine Z calling herself a "critical dissent dying for democracy, freedom and justice in my homeland" and set up a LinkedIn discussion group. As a result, China blocked LinkedIn.
Chinese officials do not want what is happening in the middle east to spill over into their country.
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Best 11 Facebook Promotion Apps
Facebook Queen Mari Smith recently listed her favorite Facebook promotion apps on Social Media Examiner:
What apps are best for running contests?
One of the most widely used apps is Wildfire app. Easy to use and competitive pricing.
Wildfire app
You can choose among 10 different types of promotions, including photo, video, quiz, trivia and more:
Wildfire app promotion choices
Wildfire app promotion choices
See Wildfire's FAQ to decide among running a sweepstakes, contest or coupon/giveaway campaign.
A wide variety of third-party apps offer promotion services that meet Facebook's rules. Check out any of the following:
Fanappz
Vitrue
BuddyMedia
Votigo
ContextOptional
BulbStorm
NorthSocial
Momentus Media
Friend2Friend
Strutta
Mari also listed Top 75 Apps for Enhancing Your Facebook Page along with Facebook's list of preferred developers here.
Hat Tip: Read the full article from Mari Smith here
Suggested book:Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
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February 28, 2011
Facebook Kills Share Button – Enhances Like Button
Facebook's new "like" button release adjusts it's functionality to that of a Share button. Now if you hit the like button your profile wall will include the full story and image. Prior to this new release if a user hit a "like" button it would merely be a link showing in your recent activity. The change should increase traffic to third part/publisher sites. Hence, in turn more people will adopt the Facebook like buttons, which is ultimately good for Facebook.
According to Josh Constine of Inside Facebook the Share button is often displayed amongst a set of other buttons for Twitter, Digg, bookmarking, and email, but Facebook would rather have its own real estate opposed to being lost amongst the competition. Now that Facebook has given the Like button almost a year to prove its worth, third-parties would probably implement a Like button if they could no longer use the Share button, granting Facebook this improved placement.
The phase out of the Share button is evident in Facebook's documentation. The "Facebook Share" result shown when searching for "Share" on the developers site directs to the Like button documentation page.
Hat Tip: Josh Constine Inside Facebook
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YouTube Favorites PS22 Perform at Oscars
Somewhere Over the Rainbow was performed at the Oscars last night live on statge by PS22.
(Video: Watch this video on the post page)
PS22 is the New York based choir that have been the darlings of YouTube since 2007 when they originally covered a few Tori Armos songs. They were awarded the Webby Artist of the Yar Award in 2010. At the end of this video while PS22 is singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" the Oscar winners of the night join them on stage.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow was performed by the kids of PS22 at the 2011 Oscars
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Social Network Movie Oscars: 3 for 8
The Social Network went 3 for 8 at the 2011 Oscars winning:
Facebook now has 600 million users and 3 Oscars via The Social Network Movie
Best adapted screenplay: Aaron Sorkin
Best soundtrack: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Social Network soundtrack sample below)
Best film editing: Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
The five Oscar losses may reflect the fear Hollywood has of social media and technology advances in general. The Oscars (arbitrary voting) may be Hollywood's last stronghold on any semblance of control. However, don't be
surprised to see in the coming years the Oscars embracing tools like Twitter to increase viewer ratings. MTV's Video Music Awards have done this to much success.
Until then, the makers of The Social Network can take pride in cracking into the exclusive club of Oscar winners. Ironically, this is the storyline of the movie, a young Mark Zuckerberg trying to be accepted into an exclusive social club.
(Video: Watch this video on the post page)
The above is a sample of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Oscar award winning Social Network soundtrack.
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February 25, 2011
Zuckerberg Comic Book- The Newest Superhero!
The youngest billionaire on the planet has everyone saying, 'move over Superman, there's a new comic hero in town!'
The comic book, which hit shelves Wednesday, February 23, 2011 and is currently for sale on and off line for $7, sets out to shed more light on who Zuckerberg is, how Facebook came to be one of the most influential sites to date.
The writers, freelance journalist Jerome Maida and illustrations by Sal Field, of the 48-page comic book express that they ventured out to create a more balanced image of Zuckerberg.
After the release of "The Social Network," which is up for picture of the year this Sunday at the Oscars, there was a lot of hype that Zuckerberg's character was not an accurate portrayal of who the Facebook creator really is.
Keep a look out for potential animated movies based on this new comic book. Look's like Zuckerberg has joined the ring of superhero's helping solve crime worldwide! WHAM! POW! CLICK
Hat Tip: http://comicbook.com/blog and http://www.csmonitor.com/Books
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February 24, 2011
New MacBook Pro
New MacBook Pros were released from Apple this morning. The New MacBook offers:
Upgraded processors and graphics
High-speed Thunderbolt I/O port
New FaceTime-enabled HD camera
The big improvement, especially for professional users is the Thunderbolt I/O port.
Thunderbolt is a revolutionary new I/O technology that delivers an amazing 10 gigabits per second and can support every important I/O standard which is ideal for the new MacBook Pro. – Apple SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller
Perhaps the demand was more than anticipated, because the Apple store has been down for much of the morning. Those wanting to purchase the New MacBook Pro have been greeted with this message:
New MacBook buyers were greeted with this message this morning
13-inch MacBook Pro
Configuration #1 ($1199)
2.3GHz Dual-Core i5 Intel Processor
Intel HD Graphics 3000
4GB DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM
320GB 5400 RPM HD
Glossy 1280×800 resolution display
SuperDrive 8x
Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort
SDXC Card slot, 1x FireWire 800, 2x USB 2.0, Ethernet and Digital Audio/Mini Stereo Jack
Configuration #2 ($1499)
2.7GHz Dual-Core i5 Intel Processor
Intel HD Graphics 3000
4GB DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM
500GB 5400 RPM HD
Glossy 1280×800 resolution display
SuperDrive 8x
Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort
SDXC Card slot, 1x FireWire 800, 2x USB 2.0, Ethernet and Digital Audio/Mini Stereo Jack
15-inch MacBook Pro
Configuration #1 ($1799)
2.0GHz Quad-Core i7 Intel Processor
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256 MB of GDDR5 RAM
4GB DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM
500GB 5400 RPM HD
Glossy or antiglare 1440×900 resolution display
SuperDrive 8x
Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort
SDXC Card slot, 1x FireWire 800, 2x USB 2.0, Ethernet and Digital Audio/Mini Stereo in/out
Configuration #2 ($2199)
2.2GHz Quad-Core i7 Intel Processor
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1 GB of GDDR5 RAM
4GB DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM
750GB 5400 RPM HD
Glossy or antiglare 1440×900 resolution display
SuperDrive 8x
Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort
SDXC Card slot, 1x FireWire 800, 2x USB 2.0, Ethernet and Digital Audio/Mini Stereo in/out
17-inch MacBook Pro
Configuration #1 ($2499)
2.2GHz Quad-Core i7 Intel Processor
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1 GB of GDDR5 RAM
4GB DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM
750GB 5400 RPM HD
Glossy or antiglare 1900×1200 resolution display
SuperDrive 8x
Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort
SDXC Card slot, 1x FireWire 800, 2x USB 2.0, Ethernet and Digital Audio/Mini Stereo in/out
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February 23, 2011
Twitter Down | Twitter Delays 2/23
Many of us on 2/23 are seeing more of the fail whale than we'd like on Twitter. Is there a Twitter outage?
Twitter posted the below message on status.twitter.com at around 5 pm EST:
Twitter outage: For some it was tough to Tweet on Wednesday
Anyone else having trouble getting on?
Recommended Book: Twitter Power 2.0: How to Dominate Your Market
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