While the news of Apple's iPad having 3G wasn't exactly a surprise, the move to a new format for the SIM certainly was. The SIM -- that tiny card that holds your contact info and account information that you find in your GSM handset -- is a 15 x 25mm plastic card whereas the new Micro SIM (also known as a 3FF SIM) is a diminutive 12 x 15mm, about 52% smaller. Needless to say, it's not physically compatible with your current phone. This card was developed by the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) to offer things like more storage space on-chip for provider applications, increased control and security functions -- over what, we don't know -- and the new smaller form factor allows it to fit in tiny devices. Frankly, we wouldn't call the iPad "tiny" and we have absolutely no clue what justification Apple had to switch to it other than a desire to be different -- this is the company that pioneered Mini DisplayPort, after all -- but the long and the short of it is that you're going to have a hard time finding a carrier offering Micro SIMs in the short term since the GSMA doesn't appear to be actively spearheading a mass conversion. In fact, from AT&T's perspective, this is better than a software lock in some ways -- you're not going to be able to download a hack that gets you on another network, so you're totally at the mercy of your carrier at choice for providing a compatible card. Intentionally evil? Perhaps not -- all standards have to start somewhere -- but it's an awful pain in the ass.

Update: T-Mobile (in a partnership with Lok8u GPS devices) announced they were bringing the 3FF SIM to US shores back on January 6th of this year. See the source link for more info.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/a...sim-explained/ ...

Like the camera references, this could just be another case of vestigial SDK weirdness -- but for whatever reason, devs have noticed (and we've been able to reproduce) a "Touch to return to call" bar in the iPad emulator just like you'd expect to find on an iPhone during a traditional GSM call. It certainly seems like Steve would've bothered to mention during today's festivities if you could do something crazy like pair up a Bluetooth headset and go to town (and you'd need a voice plan on top of that $29.99 data anyway), so who knows: either Apple's just made every UI element as adaptable as possible regardless of whether it's applicable to a particular device, they're planning a higher-res iPhone down the road, or they're integrating the bar into some VoIP action. Or... you know, none of the above.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/28/i...ls-or-will-it/ ...

50 seems to be a pretty trendy number right now, what with Palm's Pre Plus and Samsung's i8910 HD both showing off the ability to run more than 49 concurrent processes. Joining that number party, albeit in a different fashion, is this video demonstrating 50 games running smooth as butter on a Motorola Droid handset. If you thought you had to have a Zune HD, iPod touch or one of them webOS thingies to get your mobile gaming on, maybe this will serve as a competent dissuader. See it after the break.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/28/5...ays-android-c/ ...

Well, here we go again. Apple might have stolen all the headlines yesterday with the iPad, but as we've already noted, that name has been in dispute since September -- and it doesn't look like Fujitsu, which has been selling its own iPad since 2002, is going to back down. "It's our understanding that the name is ours," Fujitsu PR director Masahiro Yamane told the New York Times. Maybe, but it's not quite that simple. Here's the deal: Fujitsu applied for the "iPad" mark in 2003, specifically covering handheld devices used in retail. (The Fujitsu iPad is a $2,000 Windows CE point-of-sale device.) Along the way, the application got bogged down because a company called Mag-Tek had already registered IPAD for its line of PIN-entry keypads, and Fujitsu's application was listed as "abandoned" in April of 2009. The notice of abandonment apparently woke someone at Fujitsu up, because the company then asked the Trademark Office to re-open the application, arguing that Mag-Tek's IPAD had nothing to do with the Fujitsu iPad. The USPTO agreed, re-opened the application, and the process continued until September, when the iPad application was published so other trademark holders could oppose registration. That's when Apple signaled that it wasn't so happy about things -- and filed its own "iPad" trademark application using a shell company called "IP Application Development."

Phew -- still with us? That leaves us at now, with Mag-Tek selling the IPAD under a valid, registered trademark, Fujitsu selling an iPad with a pending trademark application, and Apple sucking all the air out of the room with the launch of the iPad and no US trademark at all. We'll be honest: we'd always simply discounted rumors Apple would call it the iPad, because this is kind of a mess. Apple can't just take "iPad" from Fujitsu because it really wants the name -- it's likely going to have to argue that "iPad" is confusingly similar to "iPod," while still trying to register "iPad" on its own and telling the Trademark Office that it won't be confusing to people looking for the Mag-Tek device, or the Siemens "iPad" motor trademark, or potentially even Coconut Grove's trademarked iPad bras. Of course, all these problems can be solved with the direct application of cash and some nice ambient media attention, so it's likely we'll see some friendly joint PR from Apple and Fujitsu along with an agreement to share the name sometime before Apple's formal opposition is due on February 28. That's pretty much what happened when Apple bit the "iPhone" name from Cisco, anyway. But still -- why can't Apple ever learn to have these conversations ahead of time?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/28/a...emark-dispute/ ...

Internet-enabled computers managed to transform the way we consume porn—as did smartphones like the iPhone a few years later. Now, with the iPad, Apple's released a whole new class of device: how will it effect adult entertainment?

Well, if you ask us, it probably won't—or at least, not in the way its predecessors did. While there's no doubt that the iPad is a hugely transformative device that will shape the way we consume a great deal of media, when it comes to porn...well, it just doesn't quite cut it.

As we see it, there are two main problems with the device:

Content: The iPad is set up to download media from three sources: the app store, the iTunes store, and the iBooks store. Awesome, sure—unless you like porn. As Apple has shown, time and time again, they're just not to keen on letting adult entertainment into their universe. And since there's no DVD drive on this baby, you can forget about watching porn that way. If you want to consume anything dirty, you have two options:

1) Go to a porn website using Safari (and forget about sites using Flash-based streaming video).

2) Load a dirty movie into iTunes (that you got from some place other than the iTunes store), and load it on to your iPad that way.

Not the worst options, of course—after all, those are the same ways one gets porn onto the iPhone. But that brings us to the second issue.

It's not discreet: The iPad has—rightly—been described as a very big iPhone...and that's exactly the problem. The main reason why the iPhone has had such a successful career in porn is because it's tiny. As a small, portable device, the iPhone allows you to browse porn discreetly, wherever you may be: at home, at the office, out on the town...and do we really have to explain the benefits of being able to comfortably hold it with one hand?

The iPad, on the other hand, though more manageable than a laptop, is hardly a discreet device. No one's going to believe you're bringing it to the bathroom "to do some reading"—and can you imagine the strain you'll get from holding it in one hand as you lie in bed? And don't even get us started on what would happen if you tried to browse porn on it in public...

Steve Jobs described the iPad as a device that fills the gap between computers and smartphones. And it's true. But in occupying that central position, the iPad's a device that's neither here nor there. Too limited in content to be a portable porn library, and too big and bulky for secret porn watching, it's pretty much the worst of both worlds...at least for the porn connoisseurs of the world.

http://fleshbot.com/5458278/will-the...e-consume-porn ...

Bad luck, non-US countries. iBooks won't be available from launch in any country other than the US. That could mean Apple's still to finesse the licensing details with book publishers in each country, or you're just plain out of luck.

While I doubt they could write off one of the most attractive features of the iPad that easily, it's disappointing that there'll be a delay in other countries. Apple's Australian website is one of the first sites to have any trace of the iPad, which confirms the lack of ebooks.

I'll be busy pressing F5 every 10 minutes on the UK Apple site, looking for any sign of the iPad, as I just can't believe Apple could launch the device without ebooks from the get-go in the UK, considering Penguin's a British publisher, Hachette a French one, Macmillan originally Scottish but now German, and Harper Collins a British/American company.

http://gizmodo.com/5458585/ipad-coul...ries-at-launch ...

As you're probably aware, the Apple iPad, like the iPhone and iPod Touch, doesn't support Flash. Apple has its reasons for this, but clearly Adobe isn't happy about it. Here's their response.

It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple's DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.
If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab — not to mention the millions of other sites on the web — I'll be out of luck.
Adobe and more than 50 of our partners in the Open Screen Project are working to enable developers and content publishers to deliver to any device, so that consumers have open access to their favorite interactive media, content, and applications across platform, regardless of the device that people choose to use.
The main arguments against Flash running on the iPad are that it's a resource hog and a security risk. Both true! Hopefully the web is moving away from relying on Flash for videos and ugly menus, with HTML5 acting as a more-than-adequate replacement. But we're not there yet. While I can appreciate the fact that Apple is trying to keep the iPad more stable by not including Flash, the fact that it kills off most online gaming and video streaming in the process makes the tradeoff questionable.

http://gizmodo.com/5458645/adobe-res...-lack-of-flash ...

"It's not widescreen!" you might've snorted about the iPad's display. Besides the practical consideration that a tablet w/ a 16:9 screen would be more awkward to hold, Lonely Sandwich's diagram explains a lot of what's going on there

http://gizmodo.com/5458782/a-conside...s-aspect-ratio ...

The iPad! A revolutionary, game-changing product. But also, far from perfect. Let's help Apple out on that second front, shall we?

Don't feel like you need to stick to realistic improvements, either. Sure, me adding Flash to make Hulu usable wasn't too crazy, but please think outside the box here.

Send your best entries to me at [email protected] with Improved iPad in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs under 800k in size (seriously, anything over will not be posted because our gallery system freaks out when we try to feed it lots of large files), and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg naming convention using whatever name you want to be credited with. Send your work to me by next Tuesday morning, and I'll pick three top winners and show off the rest of the best in our Gallery of Champions. Get to it!

http://gizmodo.com/5458783/lets-help...ad-even-better ...