Hasta La Gadget!

Get ready to welcome some amazing wood grain effects into your lives, future iPad owners, for the iBooks app has just landed at the App Store. Proudly proclaimed as being “designed exclusively for the iPad,” this app gives you direct access to the iBookstore, which will offer free samples of books ahead of purchase and a brand new way for you to channel money into Cupertino pockets. Built-in search, highlighting and bookmarking features are augmented by text-to-speech functionality and ePub format support. Funnily enough, iBooks will only support DRM-free ePub files sourced from outside the iBookstore, but no mention is made as to whether its own wares will be similarly unimpeded. Speaking of restrictions, the whole operation is still limited to the United States, leaving the Stephen Frys of this world sighing wistfully from across the pond.

[Thanks, Brian]

iBooks app meets App Store, produces US-only iBookstore offspring originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s certainly not the first time we’ve heard of an automobile shipping sans a paper-based user guide, but unlike those other guys who toss you a CD-R with a couple of PDFs on there, Hyundai is seriously upping the ante with its 2011 Equus. Revealed today over at the New York Auto Show, the company announced that the aforementioned vehicle would ship with an Equus Multimedia Tablet, enabling users to easily and quickly pull up a slew of information and diagrams about their new whip. The outfit’s US president John Krafcik didn’t specifically mention the brand or model of the tablet that’d be included, but the image shown to the crowd (and to you, above) certainly reeks of iPad. What’s even more interesting is that the tablet will be used as more than just an owner’s guide, but as an interface for handling “customer / dealer interactions like scheduling service appointments.” We suspect we’ll hear more about what kind of device will be included as the vehicle’s ship date nears, but if we were the betting kind, we’d say that a massive, undercover deal with Fusion Garage will put a JooJoo into each and every Equus owner’s hands. Kidding.

2011 Hyundai Equus to come with ‘multimedia tablet,’ learning tutorials from Video Professor originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Greg Packer, we salute you. Sure, the weather in New York City is a lot finer now than it was back in the sweltering summer of 2007, but we still feel the need to tip our hat to someone who’d camp out three whole days at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store (read: “The Cube”) for an iPad. Tipster Tom dropped in the image after the break at around 3:15PM ET yesterday, and after a short nap in Penn Station, Mr. Packer is freshened up and holding down his spot yet again. We aren’t anticipating iPhone-esque lines this coming Saturday, but considering that new pre-orders aren’t being fulfilled until April 12th or later, we reckon this guy is following that whole “better safe than sorry” thing to a T. Check out a brief video captured on the streets (thanks, Zoltan Kaprinay!) by tapping that ‘Read More’ link, and head on over to Switched if you’d like to relive a similar interview from the iPhone campout.

We’ll leave you with a few choice quotes from Mr. Packer on why exactly he’s doing such a thing for such a product:

Question: “So, nobody took your place?”
Packer: “No, nobody… nobody.”

Question: “So, you are the first one?”
Packer: “So far, yep yep!”

Question: “So you’re going to be the first one to buy one, also?”
Packer: “Yep, yep!”

Question: “Do you have any number?”
Packer: “Huh?! Yes, yes. Well, first come, first serve! They don’t give you a number, you queue up for a number.”

Question: “Do you have something in your bag, to eat or drink?”
Packer: “Just mainly a change of clothes. Nothing to eat, nothing to drink.”

Question: “Why do you want [the iPad] so desperately?”
Packer: “Because… it’s like a mini laptop! I mean, you just… you know, click it on, just like you click the iPhone on. And you don’t have to open it up, and you know, go through, you know, go through everything. “

Question: “So, you need to have it?”
Packer: “Yes! “

[Thanks, Tom and Zoltan]

Continue reading First NYC iPad line sitter also camped for first iPhone: a legend is born (video)

First NYC iPad line sitter also camped for first iPhone: a legend is born (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At least eight people got iPads from Apple pre-launch, three usual suspects plus some new faces. Their approaches are different, but the take-home remains the same: It’s good. Here’s the easiest way to digest all the iPad reviews at once: More »

We’re not quite at the height of Apple frenzy, but looking at the bell curve, we’re only a standard deviation or two from its zenith (we imagine the fever pitch will be in tandem with Saturday’s iPad launch, if history and human nature tells us anything). Of course, that doesn’t stop the rumor mill from amping up production, and so on with the show! First on the docket, remember last month’s discovery of multitasking comments in the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta? Well, Apple Insider’s apparently got it on word from its network of sources that OS 4.0 will in fact include multitasking, with app switching purportedly done by double-tapping the home button and selecting the appropriate active app icon. If you ask us, that sounds similar in function to command / tab switching, but the people claiming to be in the know liken it more to Expose for OS X.

Taking a step back to focus on the actual hardware for a moment, iPad in Canada is hearing that local Apple store employees have been told April 24th is a “black out period,” meaning no one is allowed to take that day off. That usually coincides with major product launch, and we did hear the international iPad debut would be late April, but Apple’s yet to make its non-US plans concrete. It is the last Saturday of the month, however, and perhaps it’ll coincide with the other countries as well. As always, none of this is confirmed and shouldn’t be taken as gospel in any way, shape, or form. We can’t stop you from getting your hopes up, but don’t blame us if those dreams get shattered by a sucker punch of reality.

Apple rumor twofer: Expose-like multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0, international iPad launch on April 24th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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