'Leaf' To Get Battery Plant

SMYRNA, Tennessee (AP):Nissan North America Inc broke ground Wednesday for a lithium-ion battery plant as part of a plan to build a five-passenger all-electric car, the Leaf, and create up to 1,300 jobs in Tennessee.

The automaker's top executive said it was a no-risk venture. "This is going to be a moneymaker," Nissan Motor Co Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ battery).

The battery plant is part of a US$1.7-billion investment to start production of the Leaf in 2012. Most of the investment comes from a federal loan aimed at fostering energy independence.

The four-door hatchback has a range of 100 miles (160 kilometres) on a single charge. It will have a base price of US$32,780, but it's eligible for a US$7,500 federal-tax credit, making it closer to US$25,000 (Sony VGP-BPS8 battery).

The 1.3 million-square-foot (120,000 sq metre) battery plant will also create about 250 construction jobs at Smyrna, where Nissan currently has about 3,800 employees at what was the first foreign auto-assembly plant to locate in the South.

Ghosn, Governor Phil Bredesen and United States (US) Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman attended the Wednesday ceremony (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery).

Ghosn said he drove a Leaf last week in Japan, calling it "a roomy five-seater with a spacious trunk."

"Its very powerful, it's very silent and the handling is exceptional," he said.

Nissan has said the production hiring will coincide with its scheduled opening of the battery plant in 2012 and there will be up to 1,300 new jobs when Leaf assembly operates at full capacity. Ghosn said the plant might eventually make batteries for other automakers (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery).

advance orders

The US$1.4 billion federal loan to Nissan is part of a US$25-billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Programme authorised by Congress as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

Nissan's Leaf will be sold in the US starting in December 2010. The Japanese automaker is taking advance orders to sell the cars in markets that include Tennessee, Oregon, California, Arizona and Washington (Sony VGP-BPL15 battery).

Ghosn said California offers a state incentive that lowers the price to about US$20,000.

Nissan has said it will start making the Leaf in Japan later this year, in the US in 2012 and in England starting in early 2013.

Ghosn said 130,000 consumers have registered to buy the car - 13,000 in the US. He expects electric cars to make up 10 per cent of the automotive market (ASUS A3000 Battery).

Nissan expects US production to reach 150,000 cars per year with 200,000 batteries manufactured annually.

Ghosn, who also heads France's Renault, has been a vocal proponent of electric vehicles and said Wednesday that Nissan is a leader in no-emission transportation and is also developing fuel-cell technology. Ghosn said Nissan is waiting for China to develop a policy on electric cars (ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Battery).

"When a government is interested they call us," Ghosn said. "People are calling us and telling us "What should we do to get the electric car in our country or our city?"'

Ghosn predicted 2010 will be a record for overall automotive sales globally, at about 17 million cars (Dell Inspiron 6400 battery).

Droid Incredible Review(2)

Performance

As benchmarked by Linpack, the raw performance is the same than what we're getting on the Nexus One, so there's no surprise on that front. Android 2.2 will bring a 5X theoretical performance jump, because apps will be compiled to native code, thanks to the Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler that turns Java code into native code (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ battery).

User Interface performance: on the "perceived performance" front, the user interface is fast. Android phones have made steady progress and went from relatively slow to fairly fast in less than a year. If you're a little picky (like I am), you will notice that the UI elements are still not as fluid as the iPhone 3GS or theZune HD. I still think that this is a structural software issue with Android, one that has not been addressed in Android 2.2, yet (Sony VGP-BPS8 battery).

Gaming performance: At the moment, gaming performance is pretty much in-line with what you can get on the Nexus One. It's good, but it could be (and will be) even better with Android 2.2. Let's hope that HTC will come up with the Droid Incredible 2.2 Update quickly. Look at the video to see what the Droid Incredible can do (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery).

Boot time: if you're curious, the Droid Incredible boots in 37 seconds from black screen to "being usable".

Multitasking (Excellent)

We all know it, Android is a good multitasker, but you will need to keep an eye on what's running in the background to avoid taxing the resources (cycles, battery) too much. I still recommend using a Task Killer application, and preferably one that lets you kill all non-essential apps in one click via a shortcut. You can also set it to automatically terminate applications every x minutes/hours, just to make sure that you don't forget. Even though Android has (in theory) been getting better at minimizing the impact of background tasks on the battery, I found the Task Killer to be useful - oh and it's free too (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery).

HTC Sense

While the Nexus One is running on a standard Android build, the Incredible benefits from HTC Sense, an improved user interface (UI) that builds upon Android. There are a ton of improvements, and my favorites are the calendar, flash support in the browser, status updates and the homepage "leap" (seeing all seven home screens at once). These simple things make your life a little easier. I don't think that I should dedicate a whole section of this review to it, but if you want to know more, head to this article form Android Central. Honestly, I would rather see Google improving the Android UI for all, instead of having HTC do it only for HTC devices (ACER Travelmate 2300 Battery).

Entertainment

Photos gallery (Getting better): the photo gallery app is simple and classic. You can scroll over a film roll that displays 3 photos at once, or zoom in and view photos one by one. You can even crop the photos if you want, although I never have the urge to do it. From the gallery, it is very easy to share a photo via email, social networks or Bluetooth. Overall, the gallery works so much better than phones that came out just 6 months ago. It's faster, but still lags behind the Zune HD and the 3GS. We're getting close...(Sony VGP-BPL15 battery)

Music (No search?): The plain-vanilla Android comes with a decent music player, and I usually don't have much to say about other than "it works". The HTC variant is equally functional, except in one way: I did not find a text search function - this is a pain in the neck if you have a lot of songs. I tried to use the unified search, but no music results came out (ACER Aspire 3020 Battery).

Audio quality (Good): Overall, the external speaker quality is good. It is plenty loud and you can definitely watch a clip, or listen to music very decently. If you crank the volume level past 80%, the sound starts to be distorted.

YouTube Videos (Very good): YouTube video worked really well over 3G, despite that fact that I have only 2/4 bars when sitting at my desk. No particular complaint there. Make sure that you use the high-quality video (in the menu). By default, my YouTube app was to the low quality (ACER Aspire 3000 Battery).

MP4 Videos: Videos played locally on the Droid Incredible can be extremely sharp and fast. I have created a 2.5Mbps movie (AVC, 720x480, 30fps, stereo 48Khz) and the phone was able to play it back perfectly. May be I could have cranked up the bitrate, but this was more than enough. On the other hand, PSP-friendly .mp4 files that I used with other Android phones did not work on this one. That's a bummer because some people out there might have build and converted a ton of movies to fit their phones. I also tried to play a 720p 8Mbps movie, and that one froze my phone (ASUS A3000 Battery).

Misc

Skype: Verizon has the best Skype integration on Android (The Nokia N900's is great too), so it's quite a perk to be able to leave Skype in the background and place/receive calls with it. Remember that SkypeOut calls will use your minutes because they don't go through 3G, but call a special number instead. This means no voice-over-IP from a hotspot, or from abroad. Too bad...(ASUS Eee PC 900 Battery)

Battery Life (Excellent)

Overall, the Droid Incredible has the best battery (ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Battery) life of all the Android devices that I have had in my hands recently, and that includes the HTC EVO 4G, if you are curious. The Nexus One and most of the others could barely survive 24hrs, even with a moderate usage, but the Droid Incredible survived way into the second day (see how I use it in the "Context" paragraph at the beginning). This is huge because this means that I can forget to charge it overnight. I'm not sure why this is, but I suspect that the idle power management (sleep mode) is simply better. What I don't understand is why the EVO 4G, which runs a similar software (if not more recent), does not pass the 24hrs barrier. (note that I use a Task Killer on all Android phones. This is often very useful to cut down power consumption)(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ4000 Battery)

Battery utility: if you want to know what app is sucking out all the power, use the battery utility. It will show you which app/process consumes power and this knowledge will help you save power. Go to Settings>>About Phone>> Battery>>Battery use (see photo above) (Dell Inspiron 6000 battery).

User-replaceable: The battery is user-replaceable if you feel like buying some more, but I found the backplate to be much harder to open than on the Nexus One for instance. No biggie, but if you change batteries often, it might be annoying. I think that most users feel better to know that they can change a dead battery themselves, not that it actually happens that much (Dell Inspiron 6400 battery).

Camera is incredibly taxing: After a week or so, I realized by accident that the camera was the most battery-taxing of all (at least that I know of). If you use the camera for 3-5mn, it will quickly jump to be the most power-hungry app in the battery utility. Good to know(HP PAVILION DV2000 Battery)!

Power Management Widgets: I found the power management widget to be very useful because it shows you right away if high-powered stuff like 3G, WIFI and GPS are ON or OFF, it puts you in (complete but manual) control of the power management. Of course, a better alternative might be to make things smarter so that they turn completely OFF and ON when needed, but in the meantime, it's handy. I highly recommend it (HP PAVILION DV3000 Battery).

Things that could be better

Narrow design: just like many HTC designs, I find the Droid Incredible to be very pocketable, but at the expense of typing accuracy with the virtual keyboard. A careful examination of the virtual keyboard reveals that it is only slightly narrower than the iPhone's but that small difference makes a noticeable difference in typing linpack. Fortunately, HTC also has larger phones like the EVO 4G, which is much more comfy to type on (HP PAVILION DV8000 Battery).

No Data during calls: This has to do with the CDMA wireless technology used by Verizon (and Sprint): it simply can't do voice and data at the same time. For example, you can't be on the phone and go do a web search (the browser won't be able to connect). That sounds really annoying, but in the real world, it has never been an issue for me. I did try it and I can confirm that this is true, and I think that you should know. It seems that Sprint's Wimax (4G) doesn't suffer from this and Verizon's upcoming LTE (4G) might not either (HP PAVILION DV6000 Battery).

No UMA: Verizon's network has worked very well during this test, but wouldn't it be nice if they were supporting UMA as well? With UMA, we would be able to connect to the Verizon network over WIFI. That would be a boon for customers living on the edge of the network. It would also offer a small solution to those who travel abroad. They would be able to get some coverage indoors.

No International service: I just mentioned the international traveler, so you've been warned: outside of the US, this phone won't work (IBM ThinkPad T40 Battery).

Landscape mode doesn't work at 90 degrees CW: This is very mild, but the landscape mode doesn't work consistently. The screen will rotate only counter clock-wise (CCW) and it will do so only in specific apps.

Conclusion

The Droid Incredible is an excellent phone that demonstrates (Toshiba PA3399U-2BAS Battery) Android at its best, and reveals HTC's mastery at releasing high-quality phones litterally faster than we can test them. I can't wait for the Android 2.2 update. Because I found the battery to be better and the screen and the tactile buttons to be more responsive, I can warmly recommend the Incredible over the Nexus One. The Verizon Network worked beautifully for me, even though I never had 4/4 bars in and around the office. No dropped calls, no sluggish web traffic. The only sacrifice, that I'm not quite yet ready to make is to abandon a SIM-card based phone because I travel a lot outside the U.S and it is just very handy to keep the same phone and pop a local SIM card in. What's you take on the Droid Incredible? Drop a comment below.

Droid Incredible Review

On the paper, the Droid Incredible doesn't look that much different from its cousin, the Google Nexus One. In fact, they do have a lot in common, even if the Droid Incredible is obviously slightly more advanced (see table) and also runs on what many call "the best cellular network in the U.S": Verizon. The Droid Incredible also comes with HTC Sense, a series fine-tuned Android OS additions that make the phone more usable. Wireless carriers aside, most people ask me: "should I get the Incredible or the Nexus One?". My definitive answer is: The HTC Incredbile. In this review, I'll tell you how I have used it and why I think that it is better than the Nexus One. Ready (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ battery)?

Context: We all use our phones differently, so it's important that I tell you where I come from: I have been using the Droid Incredible for a couple of weeks as my main phone. I typically check my email often with Exchange, and I reply moderately because the virtual keyboard is not as productive as a physical one. I browse the web several times a day to check on news sites, but I rarely watch movies or play music. I don't call much - maybe 10mn a day. This usage pattern will affect battery life and the perception of what features are useful (Sony VGP-BPS8 battery).

Technical Highlights

Droid Incredible	Google Nexus One
Android 2.1 + HTC Sense	Android 2.1
3.7" AMOLED 480x800	3.7" AMOLED 480x800
Qualcomm 8650 SnapDragon, 1Ghz	Qualcomm 8250 SnapDragon, 1Ghz
512MB RAM	512MB RAM
8GB of internal storage + microSD slot	4GB microSD card
8 Megapixel camera	5 Megapixel camera
Wifi b/g, BT 2.1+EDR, aGPS	Wifi b/g, BT 2.1+EDR, aGPS
FM Radio	No Radio
TV Out (microUSB)	No TV Out
Carrier: Verizon, 3G speeds	AT&T, T-Mobile
4.6 x 2.3 x 0.47", 4.6oz	4.7 x 2.4 x 0.5", 4.5oz
1300mAh battery	1400mAh battery

(Complete specs: follow the Verizon link after the conclusion)

There are a few notable differences with the Nexus One: The Droid Incredible has 8GB of internal memory (+ one MicroSD slot on the side), while the Nexus has only the MicroSD slot with a 4GB microSD card by default. Secondly, the Nexus One has a 5 Megapixel camera instead of the 8MP of the Incredible. The Incredible has a dual-LED flash, versus a the single-LED flash of the N1. The Nexus one has a slightly better battery (1400mAh), but you will see later that sheer battery capacity doesn't define battery (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery) life.

Physical Design (Very Good)

Body: the design of the Droid Incredible is slick by most people's standards, and I certainly like it myself. The backplate design might be more controversial, but while it is not my favorite backplate, I'm OK with it. I'll let you decide for yourself after looking at our photo gallery. The more important part is that the build quality is good, and the phone feels solid (Sony VGP-BPS9battery).

Display: The Droid Incredible's display is very similar to the Nexus One display (for good and bad). Both use AMOLED technology, and while the actual screen size may vary just a little, both provide the same feel and experience. It is narrower than the iPhone - not by a lot, but just enough to induce more typos when using the virtual keyboard, in my opinion. The colors seem more saturated than they should, but that's kind of how AMOLED is... I would certainly not use this an an example of color accuracy, but I like the high contrast, and how the colors "pop". The thing that I don't like with AMOLED display is how unreadable they get when it's bright outside. I guess that this is the downside of living in California, but this is probably the most annoying thing on this phone (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery).

Optical trackpad: I'm sure that I don't use the trackpad to its full potential, but it is honestly not very useful. I really need it only when I try to move the cursor within a word, and this does not happen very often. Just to give you a reference, I think that this trackpad is not as nice to use as the Blackberry Bold 9700trackpad (Sony VGP-BPS11 battery).

UI buttons: the four buttons at the bottom of the phones are much more sensitive than on the Nexus One, and I'm glad that HTC improved this aspect because the N1 was a little annoying for that. The quick search button will open a universal search that will scan you contacts, shortcuts, bookmarks and so on... it also gives you an option to extend the search to the web. For web searches, I have installed a Google Search widget (ACER Travelmate 2300 Battery).

Basics

Dial a number: Just like other Android phones, dialing a number on the Incredible is very easy. HTC Sense makes it even a little more convenient: for example, HTC made the dialer a little smaller so that you can see (and click!) the few last numbers called. Accessing the full list of contacts or favorites is also simple (ACER Aspire 3020 Battery).

Wireless reception: Overall, the Verizon network is the one that has the best reputation in the U.S, however you should remember that reception quality is mostly a matter of where YOU are. Do your homework, and ask your friend what their reception is. It might very well be that another carrier will have a cell tower nearby your home or office. I remember that a recent study has shown thatVerizon dropped less calls than AT&T (ACER Aspire 3000 Battery).

Audio quality: during calls, the sound is clear and loud (louder than my BB 9700), so I'm satisfied with this. It should be loud enough to hear distinctly in a busy restaurant (ASUS A3000 Battery).

Virtual Keyboard (Busy): HTC Sense provides a keyboard that is different from the original Android one. First of all, it as a comma key at the bottom and you can see what the alternate characters are (1,2,3... and special characters). If you press and hold a key, the alternate key will be used. By doing this, you don't have to switch to the alternate view of the keyboard. This could be a time saver, but the "hold" time is a little too long at about 2 seconds - it needs to be set to 1 second to really save time. I would like to have more control over the keyboard. I find this one to be too (visualy) busy for my taste (ASUS Eee PC 900 Battery).

Copy/Paste (works!): Most reviews don't mention this, but the Copy/Paste actually works very well on the Droid Incredible (yay!), including in non-editable zones, which is like... 97.66% of the time when you need a copy/paste. Copy/Paste works like it does with the iPhone: click and hold something and a set of delimiters will appear. Drag the delimiters to change the selection, then copy, and voila. Thank you HTC (ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Battery).

Web Browsing (Excellent): As it is the case with recent Android phones, the web browsing experience is excellent. Web browsing is fast, and the superb screen resolution makes the iPhone 3GS seem blurry. If you have a good sight, the extra resolution will let you see more text at once, therefore reducing the need to scroll and zoom - I love it (SONY VAIO VGN-FZ4000 Battery).

If you do need to zoom and scroll, HTC has added the most coveted pinch & zoom support, which was missing from most Android devices in the U.S, including the N1. Just like on the iPhone and the Pre, you can now zoom easily and intuitively. There's one difference though: this browser will reformat the text each time you zoom. While this makes text reading better, it also displaces web page elements in unexpected ways (Dell Inspiron 6000 battery).

Flash: Flash Lite is supported, but in practice, it didn't help me that much. The stuff that I really care about (Hulu, for example) did not work, but a few banner ads and games (too slow to play) did work... I think that we will need full Flash 10.1 support with great performance (I insist on this point) before the whole Flash thing starts to make a difference (Dell Inspiron 6400 battery).

Google docs: Google docs is still in read-only mode, which means that we're only half of the way there. Not that I would *like* to edit a spreadsheet from the small display with the small keyboard, but I would like to have the option of doing it (this is true for most Smartphones btw. The Nokia N900 does work with Google Docs). There's a big demand for the editing functions, so I thought that you should know (HP PAVILION DV2000 Battery).

Email / Accounts Sync

The email experience is pretty good, but I'll repeat myself (from a prior review) that this is nowhere near the level of productivity that a blackberry would reach. From getting to the top of the email list (press "t" in the BB), to initiating a reply (press "r") with a keyboard shortcut to finally typing the actual text, I would say that the Blackberry (9700) makes me twice as fast to answer emails. Also, the Blackberry has a custom dictionary that you can use to expand acronyms into full blocks of text. For example, if I type "addr" [then space], it expands to my full address - you can't beat that (HP PAVILION DV3000 Battery).

In my Nexus One review, I complained about the lack of email search. If you use the universal search (tap the search button at the bottom-right of the phone), you can search everything in the phone, including apps, shortcuts, contacts, and... emails. This is clearly much better than nothing, but I would have loved a Mail Search. Note that the GMail client has a search feature that works well. I'm talking about the Mail client for Exchange and POP/IMAP accounts here (POP and IMAP are supported by virtually all email providers) (HP PAVILION DV8000 Battery).

USB Sync: I happen to sync my email via the 3G connection, but many people would still like to sync with their computer Email with a USB cable. HTC has made it possible to sync contacts and the calendar sync over USB (kudos to them), but there's no Emai sync from Outlook or Outlook Express. I did not see any Mac support for contact sync (HP PAVILION DV6000 Battery).

Push-email: You can setup Android to deliver emails "as they arrive" to get true "push email". I tried with Exchange and GMail, but not with POP. This is great because you can engage in IM-like email thread (for better or worse), without "refreshing" the mailbox all the time (IBM ThinkPad T40 Battery).

Accounts Sync: You can add all kinds of accounts like Exchange, Facebook, Flickr, Google and Twitter and synchronize content on a regular basis. With Facebook for HTC Sense, you can't sync Facebook faster than once every hour unless you do it manually. I suspect that this is true for other services as well. Frequent manual refreshes could deplete de battery faster than you would want (IBM THINKPAD R50 Battery).

Computer Sync

Upon connecting with USB, the Droid Incredible will appear as a USB drive in your OS. Simultaneously, the phone will ask if you just want to charge (no data connection), Sync Contacts+Calendar (Windows only), Mount as a USB drive or share the phone's internet connection with the computer. This is pretty basic, but sufficient for most users. Under Windows, you can optionally import photos and videos the same way you would from a camera or a memory card - this is familiar territory. There's no iTunes equivalent to manage the phone - for better or worse. Personally, I really like the simplicity of the USB connectivity but sometimes it's easier to manage things from a computer because it's more comfy (SONY VGP-BPS2 Battery).

Tethering

Out of the box, the Droid Incredible has a tethering option that I was eager to try. Well, it didn't quite work "out of the box"... I installed HTC Sync and connected via a USB cable, chose the tethering option, after after which the computer tried to install the Modem drivers... and failed. A quick search revealed that others are experiencing the same issues. So I decided to try PDANet, a 3rd party solution that uses the USB Debug Mode to communicate data back and forth between the Droid and the computer. This seems like a workaround that would work with every carrier. Anyway, after installing following the PDANet and installing a client on my Win7 laptop, I was connected via the 3G connection. With 2/4 bars, the phone managed to get a 1.8Mbps/0.73Mbps connection, according to Speakeasy.net, that's not bad at all (TOSHIBA Pa3465u-1brs Battery).

Photo and Video

Photos: images captured with the 8 Megapixel camera look good and rank surely among the best that we've seen in recent months, but the internal image processing software has been tuned to "sharpen" the images a little too much in my opinion. There's also visible noise and small details like leaves are sometimes blurred out by the image compression. In relatively good lighting conditions, the colors are quite natural, which is a plus - the Nexus One was not as skillful. Despite being a very good mobile phone camera, it won't surpass a pocket digicam - that was to be expected. In darker conditions, it's a bit more difficult, but there's a 2-LED flash (that works best from 1.5 yards away). Just take a look at our Droid Incredible photo & video samples on Flickr, they will speak for themselves (

Toshiba PA3399U-2BAS Battery).

Video: I'm pretty happy with the video quality of this phone. The camcorder app can record videos at 800x480 (24fps, 2000kbps) and 640x480 (30fps). Lower resolutions like 320x240 are also supported, but unless you're running out storage, there's no point in using the small resolutions. 640x480 is my personal favorite as I prefer faster framerate over sheer resolution, but both work very well. I recommend avoiding fast panning motions because that might make the video a little choppy (Toshiba PA3399U-1BRS battery).

Why the iPhone Won

It’s official: Apple is the new ruler of the technology world. Today the company beat out Microsoft for the title of world’s most valuable — based on the value of all its stock — technology company.

The announcement isn’t surprising, given the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for everything Apple, including news, in recent months (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ battery).

When Gizmodo acquired a prototype of the iPhone 4GS after Apple employee Gray Powell (now infamously) left it at a bar, people paid attention. The product leakarticle has, as of this writing, garnered almost 11 million views, and it got the attention of everyone from the police to the blogging community to Jon Stewart, who coined the term “appholes” to describe the company’s reaction to the episode (Sony VGP-BPS8 battery).

It’s difficult to imagine that the misplacement of an average cell phone — prototype or not — would warrant a media frenzy. But then the iPhone is hardly an average cell phone.

When Steve Jobs announced that Apple would enter the mobile phone business at the MacWorld Conference and Expo in January 2007, hedeclared that “every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery).”

The iPhone is, clearly, one such product. When the phones went on sale that June, hundreds of people camped out to purchase them. Apple hit the 4-million-sold mark within six and a half months and reached 13.7 million by the end of 2008. By April 2010, the company had sold 50 million (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery).

On May 7, The technology market intelligence firm IDC reported that while Nokia maintained first place in global smart-phone sales with 39.3 percent of the world market in the first quarter of 2010, Apple gained on No. 2 Research in Motion (best known for the Blackberry). Research in Motion claimed 19.4 percent of the market share (down from 20.9 percent last year), and Apple took 16.1 percent, a huge gain compared to its 10.9 percent share last year (Sony VGP-BPS9battery).

Even though the iPhone isn’t leading, it’s hard to argue against its success — it is, after all, a single product with serious name recognition, compared to Nokia’s numerous, faceless phones.

What is it about the iPhone that so revolutionized the smart-phone market? Not the App Store, which didn’t open until July 2008, fully a year after the first generation iPhone came out. At the time, the store boasted about 500 apps; today, it has 204,304, according to 148apps.biz, a website that tracks the number daily (SONY VAIO VGN-FZ4000 Battery).

Researchers Joel West and Michael Mace believe the iPhone was successful because it was the first phone to offer the “real Internet” experience. (And of course Apple’s cultlike following also likely played a role in the product’s success.)

West, a professor in the department of organization and management (ASUS A3000 Battery) at San Jose State University, has Apple roots — he was a columnist for MacTutor(now MacTech and MacWeek, and founded the MacStats website. He now works as a software company strategy consultant, but is the former president and co-founder of Macintosh company Palomar Software, Inc. Mace has worked for both Apple and Palm, and is now a principal forRubicon Consulting, a strategy and marketing consultancy for tech companies (ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Battery).

Their recent paper in Telecommunications Policy, “Browsing as the killer app: Explaining the rapid success of Apple’s iPhone,” argues that the Apple approach to the mobile Internet is what has made its phone so popular. While other companies were busy trying to create a new, cell phone-appropriate Internet, Apple decided to re-create the cell phone instead (Dell Inspiron 6000 battery).

“By emphasizing the Web browsing user experience,” assert the researchers, “the iPhone leveraged the same value network of an estimated 1 trillion non-commercial, ad-supported and fee-supported Web pages that were already familiar to existing users of the wired Internet.” As West explains, Apple avoided the chicken-and-egg problem of attracting complements by making its phone a complement to the World Wide Web (Dell Inspiron 6400 battery).

The iPhone was different from other cell phones in several key ways: Instead of a keypad, it used a touch screen; it didn’t have a user-changeable memory card or battery; it offered the biggest screen of any phone model, and it included a version of Apple’s Web browser, Safari(HP PAVILION DV2000 Battery).

Apple’s business model was also unique. The company negotiated a multi-year exclusive agreement with Cingular (now AT&T) in the U.S. and required all iPhone users to purchase a two-year service contract with mobile-data service. This mobile data service (currently priced at$30/month) is required for every phone, which guarantees revenue for AT&T. (Keep in mind that iPhone users have to pay an additional monthly charge for air time and text messages (HP PAVILION DV3000 Battery) — even with a minimal plan (450 anytime minutes and 200 text messages), a monthly iPhone bill is $75 pre-tax.)

The required data plan has had a profound effect on consumers: It promotes casual browsing. Whereas other mobile Internet users with limited data plans have to pay attention to their online time, iPhone users have the pre-paid Internet at their fingertips, whenever they want it. When they want to look up a restaurant, find a statistic or check their Facebook messages, they don’t need to find a computer — they just pull out their iPhones (HP PAVILION DV8000 Battery).

Apple made sure that even people who couldn’t afford the monthly expense of their phone could get hooked on their platform. The iPod Touch, a sort of “iPhone lite,” is an mp3 player that is visually indistinguishable from the phone, although it can’t make calls and can only connect to the Internet through a wireless network. Although it was initially more expensive than the iPhone, it has become almost as popular (likely due to some extent to Apple’s promotional giveaway of the product with laptop purchases (HP PAVILION DV6000 Battery)).

West wrote last year on his blog that if the iPhone is heavily used for the same thing as the so-called “wired” Internet (in other words, the computer Internet), it will start to become a substitute. And while the smart-phone market is evolving to reflect this new reality, the iPhone has shown that the catalyst for the widespread adoption of mobile data services wasn’t, as some experts predicted, mobile banking, commerce or mapping services (don’t worry, there are apps for that), but something far more simple (IBM ThinkPad T40 Battery).

“In the end,” write West and Mace, “The iPhone proved that for the U.S. (and perhaps Europe), the killer app for the mobile Internet was the same as for the wired Internet: a Web browser (IBM THINKPAD R50 Battery).”

Nissan Breaks Ground on Their U.S. Electric Car Battery Plant

The hot, sweltering Tennessee sun baked us under a big white-top tent this morning as Nissan dedicated the future site of their $1.7 billion dollar, state-of-the art Nissan LEAF battery plant in Smyrna. Encompassing 1.3 million square feet (22 American football fields), when the plant comes online in late 2012 it will be one of the largest battery (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ battery) facilities in North America.

Tennesee’s Governor, Phil Bredesen, was on hand along with Daniel Poneman, the Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Energy and Carlos Ghosn, Nissan’s CEO and President (Sony VGP-BPS8 battery).

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The plant will deliver batteries to Nissan LEAFs that are set to be assembled in the existing Smyrna vehicle assembly plant right next door. As the battery plant is constructed over the next year and a half, the vehicle assembly facility will be retooled to be able to add LEAFs into the production line alongside Altimas, Fronteras, X-Terras and Pathfinders. When all’s said and done, the battery and LEAF production will create an additional 1,300 jobs. Nissan expects that the full capacity of the co-located plants will be about 200,000 batteries (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery)and 150,000 LEAFs each and every year.

Until the Smyrna facilities come online, there will only be one plant in Japan supplying Nissan LEAFs to the world with a production capacity of 50,000 vehicles annually. That will all change in 2012, when the Japanese facility is joined by Smyrna and other plants around the world, including a couple in Europe. At that point the production capacity for LEAFs and other Renault-Nissan EVs will jump from 50,000 to 500,000 per year (Sony VGP-BPS9battery).

During a tour of the Smyrna vehicle assembly plant, we were told that Nissan will be able to maintain current production levels of all the vehicles they assemble there (the plant has actually been in continuous operation since 1981) and that the 150,000 LEAF capacity will be in addition to those (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery).

In order to accommodating the special needs of assembling an electric vehicle, Nissan is using some serious creativity to make the inclusion of the LEAF alongside conventional vehicle assembly a virtually seamless endeavor. For instance, at the station where the fuel tank is normally brought in underneath a suspended vehicle, the LEAF will have its battery pack added. And at the station where the engine is brought in to the vehicle, the electric motor will be added. Other than that, the assembly of an electric vehicle is much simpler than a conventional one (Sony VGP-BPS11 battery).

“Nissan is committed to affordable, sustainable mobility. What we’re doing here will radically transform the automotive experience for consumers. Today is a major step in helping create a green economy in the United States,” said Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan. “Production of Nissan LEAF and lithium-ion batteries in Smyrna brings the United States closer to its goal of energy independence, creates green jobs and helps sustain American manufacturing. Nissan is a leader in global manufacturing innovation, and this state-of-the-art battery (ACER Travelmate 2300 Battery) plant will strengthen that leadership.”

The battery assembly plant was spurred by a $1.4 billion, low-interest loan from the US Department of Energy as part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ACER Aspire 3020 Battery).

Dell looks at larger screens for handheld devices

Dell on Tuesday announced it would ship its first handheld device, called Streak, in June, but it is also looking to develop devices with larger screen sizes as it tries to establish a foothold in the competitive mobile market (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ battery).

The Streak has a 5-inch screen, and the company is looking at developing handheld devices with larger screen sizes, said John Thode, vice president of small devices in Dell's communication solutions group. He said there is room for portable devices with multiple screen sizes as technology develops and new usage models for applications emerge (Sony VGP-BPS8 battery).

Communication technologies like LTE (Long Term Evolution) are developing fast, data plans are becoming cheaper, and consumers are willing to carry more devices, Thode said. Dell wants to create different consumer and enterprise usage scenarios as wireless data transfer rates get faster, he said (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery).

Streak is the first of what could be multiple devices from Dell in the fast-growing mobile space over the next few years, Thode said.

The Streak device -- which the company calls a tablet -- was developed as a pocket-sized device with a large screen on which content like movies could be viewed, Thode said. Dell executives have described Streak as hitting the "sweet spot" between smartphones and tablets with larger screens (Sony VGP-BPS9battery).

The device runs Google's Android OS. It will first be available in the U.K. through retailers Carphone Warehouse and O2 stores. Pricing was not announced and the device will be available in the U.S. later in the summer, according to the company (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery).

This market segment Streak serves was previously occupied by devices called MIDs (mobile Internet devices), which didn't take off because there wasn't the right combination of hardware and content, Thode said. Dell hopes to offer the right hardware with Streak, and with Android, hopes not to lock down users into proprietary stores to download applications and content, Thode said (Sony VGP-BPS11 battery).

Tablets recently emerged as a hot-selling item with Apple's iPad, which comes with a 9.7-inch screen. But with the 5-inch screen, the Streak is an experiment that could set the stage for development of pocket-sized devices that mix voice with a heavy emphasis on content consumption, analysts said. Smartphones already come with screens in the 4-inch range, and there is room for the screen size to increase, analysts said. HTC a few weeks ago launched the Evo 4G smartphone, which sports a 4.3-inch screen (ACER Travelmate 2300 Battery).

Streak's larger screen brings more viewing convenience to movies than traditional smartphones, said Will Stofega, program director for mobile device technology and trends at IDC, who has been using the device for a month. The device is small enough to fit in a pocket with its smartphone-like design (ACER Aspire 3020 Battery).

However, battery life could be an issue, Stofega said. He didn't measure Streak's exact battery life, but said smartphone batteries have been slow in keeping up with the faster processing power and growing screen sizes.

Streak is Dell's early entry in a crowded market dominated by Nokia, Apple, Samsung, Research in Motion and others. Sales of the device could partly depend on Dell's reputation and how carriers place the device (ACER Aspire 3000 Battery).

What it's going to come down to for them is marketing and channel. Can they get the right partner in the carrier space and can they get the advertising?" Stofega said.

Dell is trying to establish itself in a new market with a differentiated offering in Streak, but whether it succeeds remains to be seen, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. There is a going interest in Android devices, and Streak's larger screen and Dell's brand recognition could differentiate the device from a hoard of other Android devices(ASUS A3000 Battery).

"I think in the short term, they will do well," Gold said.

Dell also has a large PC supply chain and strong channel that it could leverage to distribute the products, Gold said (ASUS Eee PC 900 Battery).

Dell declined comment on its partners in the U.K. But the company has established strong partnership with carriers like AT&T and Telefonica, which has a strong presence in Europe and South America. Dell hasn't detailed what devices it would sell through Telefonica, but it will sell another smartphone called Aero later this year through AT&T. The device comes with a 3.5-inch screen and the Android OS (ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Battery).

The Streak comes with a Snapdragon processor, which runs at 1GHz. Over-the-air software upgrades will be available with the device, and users will be able to upgrade to Google's latest Android 2.2 operating system later this year. The device will also come with a high-resolution 5-megapixel camera, a front-facing camera and 2GB of internal dedicated storage. It also includes an Micro SD slot for expandable storage of up to 32 GB (SONY VAIO VGN-FZ4000 Battery).

The device offers 3G connectivity through HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) networks. It also includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities.

Apple's new iPad WiFi 3G reviewed

Apple is a strange company you either love them or hate them… One thing that nobody denies is that they make great and well designed products, the latest of which is the iPad. This is already on sale in the US and will start to become available at the end of May beginning of June in other countries (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ battery).

The demand for the iPad is so high that Apple have been having to continually revise international launch dates and extend US shipping dates. Though it is possible to buy iPads in the Apple stores in the USA (Sony VGP-BPS8 battery).

So what is this new Apple iPad phenomenon are we seeing the same sort of euphoria we saw with the iPhone? Is all this interested justified or is this just a brick doomed to failure? Read on to find out what I think in our first comprehensive look at the iPad… (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery)

Eagerly anticipating the arrival of the iPad
Now when the iPad was first announced I liked the look of it, but was determined not to be one of the first to get one. I thought I would wait and see what others thought before splashing out my hard earned dollars on the latest bit of Apple kit. Well that plan fell to pieces when the pre-orders for the WiFi 3G version were announced. Mine was delivered on May 7th: two days before I arrived in Florida to pick it up (Sony VGP-BPS9battery).

The WiFi only version has been available in the US for some time, and it far outsold the initial estimates. I had absolutely zero interest in this version as it did not include a GPS, nor could a GPS be connected to it. In my mind that defeated the objective of having a small(ish) portable device. Also although there are many WiFi hotspots all over the place it is inconvenient trying to find one when you need to read your mail, or send a few tweets so the 3G was essential as well (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery).

With this in mind I eagerly awaited the arrival of my iPad: WiFi, 3G and 64Gb memory. In fact it has been quite some time now since I have had the "childhood" impatience of waiting to get my hands on something new. It was quite a thrill again. Importantly unlike my childhood urges which often resulted in disappointment this was entirely different… The iPad is wonderful(Sony VGP-BPS11 battery)!!!

The day we arrived in Florida the iPad was sitting on my hall table waiting for me to open it. I had to control myself and do a few chores before I attacked the packaging, knowing full well that if I started to unpack the iPad then other important things would not get done. When I finally got round to opening the packaging I found my bright and shiny device pre-charged and ready to go (ACER Travelmate 2300 Battery).

I was surprised at both the size and weight of it. You can look at specs and try to figure out exactly how it will look and feel, but to actually hold it blows away all your pre-conceptions. In reality the iPad is about 1" smaller than an A4 notepad in both height and width, and weighs a fraction more. In fact the Apple case feels like it weighs about a third of the iPad itself. The result is a device that weighs a lot less than a bag of sugar t(ACER Aspire 3020 Battery).

What is the iPad?
So what exactly is the iPad? It is not a phone for sure, it wont handle voice calls. It is not an eBook, though a big new feature of it is iBook. It is not a laptop. In fact is is a whole new genre of device. In the past we have had tablet computers, but they never caught on, too expensive, too heavy and lacking in real mobile functionality. The iPad on the other hand has grown and incorporated features from the revolutionary iPhone. This initially makes it difficult to sell to anyone other than the "Apple Fanboys" but having said that if you pick one up you will be a convert. My wife was an ardent iPad sceptic, not understanding what it was or how it could change your lifestyle. After getting caught in a traffic jam and seeing the traffic flow apps (Beat the Jams) her attitude started to change. Then when sitting in the car reading the Daily Mail on Safari (while I was in Best Buy) she really got converted. Now I have to wrestle the device from her when I want to use it (ACER Aspire 3000 Battery).
So the answer to what it is really depends on what you want to do with it. It is a gaming machine. It is an MP3 player. It is a Video player. It is a mobile office. It is a navigation device. It is pretty much whatever you want it to be. And that is where and how it will make its mark, because it is something new that is an enabler. It is not a device targeted at a single market, it is more of a lifestyle gadget breaking existing usage models encompassing a multitude of uses (ASUS A3000 Battery).

iPad Applications
At launch there were 150,000 applications available to run on the device. Most of these were compatible by virtue of the fact that the iPad can run all the iPhone apps. However with a lot more real estate the iPhone apps now run at 480x320 resolution in the centre of the screen or 960x640 by doubling the size. The double sized apps don't look too great close up, but there are a few surprises. The best surprise (for me) is that our CamerAlert and any other apps using the MapKit (Google Maps) render the maps at normal density. This means that the maps look great but other user interface elements look a bit pixelated. This is not too bad, just not ideal (ASUS Eee PC 900 Battery).
Of course there are some native iPad applications. These make use of the full size and capabilities of the iPad. This includes some new UI features such as Split Views (a 320 pixel strip down the left of the screen) and Pop-Overs, a popup window. These allow a lot more flexibility when designing apps and make full use of the screen size. As time goes by more and more iPad specific Apps will hit the App Store (ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Battery).

So far I have managed to get through most of this article without mentioning GPS and navigation. In my view then of the best uses of the screen size is for mapping applications. It really brings mapping to life. No longer are you stuck with a tiny screen trying to find the balance between map scale and visible features. The screen is of sufficient size that you no longer have to compromise. I already mentioned the Google Maps, and Beat the Jams, but there are many more available: iNavX, CoPilot and Memory-Map(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ4000 Battery).

ALK's CoPilot Live HD
Almost as soon as the iPad WiFi-3G was available ALK released CoPilot HD. This has a new interface with the map and an information panel showing on the screen at the same time. Although it does look extremely nice it is somewhat less than practical as an in-car solution. The iPad is simply too big for most cars. I am sure that I will find a solution that will allow me to mount mine in the small confines of my Mercedes sports car, but in general it will either be dangerous for visibility or covering some of the cars controls. Having said that it will be ideal for truckers, or in the motor-home where of course it will double up as an entertainment centre during rest breaks.Click on image for full sized picture (COMPAQ Presario M2000 Battery).
GPSNavX's iNavX universal app
GPSNavX were also quick off the mark to release their marine navigation application iNavX for the iPad. This really showed the capabilities of the iPad. Although the iNavX app does not use all the new features of the iPad UI it does show what can be done with it. I am sure that over time the interface will evolve to take advantage of the new layouts and pop-overs. The iNavX app is interesting in as much as it highlights the third option Apple have made available to developers: Universal Applications. A universal Application is one that will run on both the iPad and the iPhone, but is a single application on the AppStore. iNavX is also unique in that it uses Fugawi's X-Traverse system to transfer data (GPX waypoints etc) between your main computer, Garmin GPS, MacENC or any other compatible system (which is most) and the iPad/iPhone. This is a feature that TomTom, Navigon and ALK should look at for getting user content into their apps (COMPAQ Presario 2100 Battery).
The above images really highlight the difference between the iPad and the iPhone.

Memory-Map HD preview
Finally I have been looking at a PocketGPSWorld Exclusive: Memory-Map on the iPad. Once again a familiar app that I started using way back in 2002 on my old iPaq 37xx has now joined the ranks of apps on the iPhone, and I have the privilege to be one of the first to use it on the iPad in a full HD version. Here having the additional space on the screen opens the way for a terrific user experience. Once again Memory-Map have had to jump through the Apple hoops to enable the import and export of data, it is a bit convoluted, but it does work (COMPAQ Presario R3000 Battery).

iPad Hardware
Getting back to the iPad hardware side of things. The most important features for me are GPS, battery life, and Wireless reception. All of these have been the weak points on the iPhone. Well I am pleased to say that Apple have learnt their lessons and have not just improved them, but moved the goalposts and raised the bar…(Dell INSPIRON 1420 Battery)

GPS Performance
Starting with GPS I have been running hot and cold about the GPS on the iPhone. For some reason in the UK and USA it works OK, but elsewhere it takes ages to get a fix, and sometimes fails to. I was in St Lucia testing some GPS Marine apps last month and I didn't get a single GPS fix whilst testing. Well Apple seem to have surpassed themselves with the iPad GPS. I get fast fixes and much more accurate than the iPhone. To test this I developed a simple diagnostic app that showed me the GPS info returned by each device. The iPad constantly reports a sub 10 metre accuracy, where the iPhone struggles to make 50 metres and often drifts out to 2500 metres relying on cell positioning (Dell Inspiron E1505 Battery).
Battery Life
Then there is the battery life. My iPhone had a reasonable life until I started to use the GPS and bluetooth etc. Over time that has diminished and now I am lucky to get 3-4 hours out of it just reading emails and maybe tweeting a bit. With the iPad the challenge is to actually run the battery down. I have had it running for 4 days without charging, using it for web, tweeting, reading the paper, GPS apps etc. Eventually it had got down to about 35% before I accidentally charged it up overnight. Even taking it on a run using CamerAlert with mapping on display it only used less than 10% in just under an hours drive. That is using 3G data, GPS and moving maps (Dell Latitude D620 Battery).

A few days ago I really put it through it's paces using it from 8am in the morning to 2am the following day. With lots of browsing, GPS apps, tweeting, downloading pictures, and reading emails I was really hammering the iPad from a real user point of view. I was missing a few crucial applications to manipulate my images and upload them to the PocketGPSWorld.com website, but apart from that it worked wonderfully. And at the end of a busy day I still had 35% battery power left!!!

I really think that this is as advertised…(Dell INSPIRON 1525 Battery)

Wireless Communications
For Wireless reception I bundle both WiFi and 3G together. Initially some of the WiFi only iPad users complained about WiFi drop outs and weak or bad connections. This certainly has not been the case with my 3G version, infact quite the opposite. I have never had a WiFi dropout, and have managed to connect to all the HotSpots I have found (Dell Inspiron 6000 battery).

The 3G side of things is a little more tricky, as you might expect. Predictably in the USA AT&T seem to be playing silly billies. To activate the account you need to have a US credit card with a US billing address and that address needs to have good AT&T 3G coverage. If not you will get a strange message saying address unknown. To overcome this I managed to call in a favour from Lutz and got up and running using his credit card details. So far I have been really impressed with both the speed and reliability of the AT&T network, but then I am using it in an area which is mainly populated by English holiday makers so probably not a lot of heavy 3G users around. The only time I lost coverage was when watching the Space Shuttle Atlantis final launch on the coast at Cape Canaveral where I was 20 miles from the nearest town, and 10 from a major road. Even so I was still able to get Edge/GPRS coverage, but so slow it was not worth the effort (Dell Inspiron 6400 battery).

iPad Accessories
The iPad was launched with a number of Apple accessories which will soon be added to by hundreds of 3rd party devices. From my point of view the 100% must have accessory is a case. The iPad is well built and strong, but cannot fit in the pocket so it will be in constant danger of being scratched and knocked. with the larger screen the opportunity to scratch it is far greater than an iPhone. The Apple case is interesting: it offers both protection and 2 formats to use it as a stand, the most interesting being lap or desk mode where it elevates the iPad by about 15 degrees for ease of reading. It can also be positioned vertically as a picture frame. The case is made of some type of anti-slip rubberised material, that while it does protect the iPad well does tend to mark easily (Fujitsu Lifebook S6120 battery).

I also got the iPad dock connector. This was a mistake as, like the iPhone, the iPad will not fit on the dock with a case on. You would have thought that Apple would realize that users would have cases and make the dock to cater for it. Best advised not to get a dock unless you want to keep removing the iPad from the case which is not an easy task. I am currently considering modifying the case so that it will fit on the dock. It is possible that I may be able to do it with just some minor trims, otherwise it will be a large hole in the case(FUJITSU LIFEBOOK P2120 Battery)...

There is also an iPad keyboard with dock. This has a standard sized keyboard, with some specific iPad keys. There is a lock key that instantly locks and unlocks the iPad, there are also keys for home, spotlight, photos, keyboard hide and iPod controls. The keyboard dock suffers from two issues: it cannot be used with a case, and the iPad must be used in portrait mode (HP PAVILION DV9700t Battery).

An other accessory I bought was the camera connection kit. This allows you to attach one of two adapters to the iPad and transfer your pictures from the camera. There are 2 adapters depending on your camera type: SD card reader or USB connector. I did try to connect a USB stick to the iPad and unfortunately it didn't recognize it. However for cameras it works really well, transferring the images into the photo app (HP PAVILION DV2 Battery).

Issues with the iPad
So far the iPad looks great, but there must be a downside! Well there are a few. The first I mentioned above: for most people the iPad will not be used as an in-car navigation device. The speaker is loud enough but the device is just too big for most cars (Sony VGP-BPS10 battery).

The second is how you transport it. Having the case is all well and good to protect it, but because of its size it doesn't fit in your pocket (in the same way a net book wont). This means that you have to carry it in your hand, and believe me after a couple of hours shopping even the iPad starts to feel heavy. To transport it efficiently you would need some form of shoulder bag, or as I refer to it: "a man bag". No doubt we will start to see these hitting the stores soon (HP PAVILION DV2000 Battery).

Next: the screen is designed for touching with gestures etc, but very quickly picks up finger prints and smudges. It may be that I have very greasy fingers, but my iPad screen is covered with marks. This does not affect the viewing of the iPad in any way, just looks a little unattractive when the screen is off ( HP PAVILION DV3 Battery).

The major bit of hardware missing from the iPad is surprisingly a camera. This seems to be a huge omission, even the cheapest phones have a camera on them. I am sure that there was a good reason that Apple decided to leave the camera off, but for the life of me I cant work out what it might be. How can I take geo-referenced pictures of things I see if there is no camera on my iPad (HP PAVILION DV3000 Battery)???

Conclusion
So to summarise: I think the iPad will be a big hit, it already is in the USA. I suspect that the UK and other countries will see the initial iPad stocks sell out rapidly. But this will all be to gadget geeks like me. For it to be a success on the scale of the iPhone it will need to identify and define it's niche. Believe me it will as soon as people start to see them in action. The playback of video is just amazing (HP PAVILION DV8000 Battery).

To be honest I don't see the point in getting the WiFi only version. I really don't see a massive market for it unless Apple add GPS to it, and that is not going to happen with the current hardware. It is like Ford selling a car without an engine: it may look good, but it wont get you anywhere… Up until last week there was no option, but now the 3G version is available it costs an extra $130 but for that you get GPS and the 3G as well. Even if you never use 3G you still have a great LBS device (HP PAVILION DV5000 Battery).

The iPad is not perfect, but it is the best gadget that I have seen in a long time. I deliberately waited to produce this review after I had been using it for a week or two to ensure that my initialeuphoria didn't pass. It hasn't!!! So love it or hate it the iPad is here to stay (HP PAVILION DV6000 Battery)!