MacRumors

Even before the launch of the iPad, there had been rumors that Apple was working with publishers to allow them to set their own prices for ebooks. This could result in bestselling ebooks being priced as high as $14.99 vs the current selling price of $9.99 on Amazon. Jobs was even questioned by Walt Mossberg about this possibility after the media event. Steve Jobs said that Amazon and iPad ebooks would be priced "the same".

Macmillan publishing found itself at the heart of the debate when the company had found its ebooks had been pulled from Amazon late last week. A message from Macmillan CEO John Sargent confirmed the disagreement and explained that they wanted to adopt an "agency" model for book pricing:

Under the agency model, we will sell the digital editions of our books to consumers through our retailers. Our retailers will act as our agents and will take a 30% commission (the standard split today for many digital media businesses). The price will be set the price for each book individually. Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time.

Today, it appears that Amazon has relented with an announcement today, but placing the blame fully on Macmillan for the higher prices:

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.

Amazon claims that they don't feel that other publishers will take the same route as Macmillan and that consumer demand will decide the matter in the long run.

Steve Jobs held a town hall meeting with Apple employees late last week following the iPad launch. Wired reports on what was said at the meeting by Steve Jobs. Two of the biggest topics included Google and Adobe.

On Google, Jobs confirms the much-reported competition between the two companies.

On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them, he says.

As for Adobe, Jobs said they are lazy and Jobs blames Adobe for a buggy implementation of Flash on the Mac as one of the reasons they won't support it.

Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it's because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.

Those are the main points covered by Wired's article. We had received a more detailed report of the Apple meeting, but hadn't been able to corroborate it until now. Many of the details of the Wired report were identical to our anonymous submission, so we believe it to be accurate. Some additional key points that we learned:

- Apple will deliver aggressive updates to iPhone that Android/Google won't be able to keep up with
- iPad is up there with the iPhone and Mac as the most important products Jobs has been a part of
- Regarding the Lala acquisition, Apple was interested in bringing those people into the iTunes team
- Next iPhone coming is an A+ update
- New Macs for 2010 are going to take Apple to the next level
- Blu-Ray software is a mess, and Apple will wait until sales really start to take off before implementing it.

In a blog post, Omni Group has committed to bringing five of their productivity apps to the iPad including OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, OmniFocus, and OmniGraphSketcher.

Remember how Macintosh was intended to be the computer "for the rest of us"? That's what we feel Apple's iPad is: the best computing device for most of the things people use computers for. (Or, as Apple puts it, "the best way to experience the web, email, and photos.") It's the computer people can sit down and start using immediately, without training, whether they're 2 or 92.

We're really excited about Apple's iPad, and we want to make all of our products available for it as soon as we can.

The Omni Group started life as NeXTStep developers back in 1989. The company made the transition to Apple when Apple acquired NeXT in 1997 and made NeXTStep the basis for Mac OS X.

Omni Group had only previously brought OmniFocus to the iPhone which won a Best of Show Award at Macworld 2008. Obviously, their iPad commitment is far more significant which includes applications which range from project management, diagrams/flowcharts, outlines, and personal task management. Their plans to aggressively move to the iPad will actually delay some future Mac versions of their software.

In response to confusion surrounding the iPad promotion video, Apple has replaced the video with a more accurate version.

The iPad promo video originally had mocked up scenes showing the iPad browsing the New York Times complete with visible Adobe Flash content. The finding generated some hope and speculation that Apple might incorporate Flash in the future. In response to the confusion, Apple has replaced the video now showing the broken Flash plug-in icon that would show up in real world use.

Apple's decision not to incorporate Flash into their iPhone OS has been a controversial one, but a stand they've remained consistent with over time.

LA Times reports that Apple has confirmed that it is now allowing the iPhone and newly released iPad to make voice over IP (VOIP) calls over AT&T's 3G cellular network.

"We revised our Program License Agreement in conjunction with our updated Software Development Kit for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Apps," wrote an Apple spokesperson.

Skype reportedly has a 3G-enabled version of their app ready to submit once they get final clarification from Apple. In the meanwhile, Fring has already enabled Skype calls over 3G in their application.

This also means that new iPad users will be able to make outgoing phone calls with just the 3G data plan. An unlimited 3G data plan for the iPad will cost $30/month.

With the launch of the Apple iPad, there has been no shortage of reactions and opinions on the device. We feel the most promising aspect of the iPad is that there is now a relatively inexpensive full-sized multi-touch platform that is open to a massive audience of developers. Apple's multi-touch iWork implementation seems to be just the beginning, and it would come as no surprise if Apple were to port more of their applications (iMovie, GarageBand, etc..) over to the iPad in time. The implementation of a File Sharing system for the first time opens up support for these sort of file-based applications.

Joe Hewitt, a prominent developer who had given up the App Store, is excited about the prospects of the iPad.

iPad is an incredible opportunity for developers to re-imagine every single category of desktop and web software there is. Seriously, if you're a developer and you're not thinking about how your app could work better on the iPad and its descendants, you deserve to get left behind.

iPhone game developers have been particularly vocal about their enthusiasm for the iPad. Firemint, the developers behind the massively successful Flight Control game have already committed to an iPad adaptation. Meanwhile, they also believe that the iPad could offer more personal multi-player experiences:

There's something very satisfying about sitting in a circle with family and friends and sharing an experience, whether it's gathering around a camp fire, around the kitchen table or around an iPad. At the moment multiplayer games often physically separate people from each other. You might be in completely different places playing World of Warcraft over the Internet. You might be sitting on a sofa playing console games with friends, but facing a large screen instead of each other. iPad could be different, and once a family has gathered around it to play a board game, we think they are far more likely to try other kinds of games too.

Several forum readers have expressed excitement that music tools akin to the Jazz Mutant Lemur will be possible. In fact, any of the impressive large screen multi-touch videos that we've seen over the past few years could be possible in some form on the iPad: Missile command, Jeff Han, TouchGrind, Warcraft III, MIDI controller.

While the App Store has been a massive success, the scope of individual iPhone applications have restricted in scope by its the 3.5" screen. We expect to see more ambitious titles for the iPad over time.

Engadget reports that evidence has been found in the iPad 3.2 SDK that Apple had been working on the possibility of video conferencing for their new tablet device:

We're told that there are hooks to accept and decline a video conference, flip a video feed (which suggests a front-facing camera) and -- most importantly -- run the video call in either full screen mode or in just a portion of the screen. That means you'll be able to chat and do other things at the same time, which could mean there's at least some type of multitasking going on here.

We'd also heard late reports that Apple had been working on models with front-facing video cameras, though it seems that Apple must have nixed this possibility at some point.

Of course, software hooks will do no good without an actual camera embedded in the device itself. We're not sure why Apple decided to cut this feature, but we may see it in a future iterations of the iPad or iPhone.

DigiTimes reports that several Asian notebook manufacturers were taken by surprise by the unexpectedly low entry-level $499 price point for Apple's iPad, forcing them to reconsider how they will price upcoming tablet models.

The vendors originally planned to offer prices pegged at 20-30% lower than the Apple iPad, while they generally expected the device to cost as much as US$1,000. The US$499 entry-level price has caught vendors by surprise and means they will now need to adjust their price scales even lower to attract consumers, the sources pointed out.

The report notes that manufacturers are reluctant to undercut the iPad price and start a pricing war for fear of eliminating profit margins even before the industry can really take hold. The fears seem justified in light of plunging netbook prices, which have reduced profits in that segment to razor-thin margins even as unit sales have exploded.

Reports as long ago as last August claimed that tablet manufacturers were holding off on new designs for their products until they could see what Apple's contribution to the market would be.

A discovery that Apple's promotional materials for the iPad show properly-displayed Flash content while Web browsing in contrast to the "broken plug-in" icon observed on-stage at Apple's media event has generated a great deal of interest and discussion today, with some wondering whether Apple is yet planning to incorporate Flash support into the shipping product.

This is unlikely for various reasons, as Apple is likely to follow the precedent set by the iPhone and not offer Flash support for the iPad. First, as several observers have noted, Flash content was similarly shown in promotional materials for the iPhone prior to its introduction, leading to speculation at that time that Flash would be supported. The iPhone, of course, still has not supported Flash to this point.

Second, Adobe's Flash team, which would likely be aware if Apple were planning to offer Flash on the iPad, has already reacted and is apparently resigned to the fact the Flash support will not be included on the iPad.

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.

Finally, several readers have noticed that in many shots the URL shown in Safari on the iPad in Apple's promotional materials is actually an apple.com gallery page rather than the real New York Times page it appears to be at first glance.

Consequently, it appears that the presence of Flash support in Apple's iPad promotional materials is either the result of video editing tricks or a specially-configured Flash-compatible iPad used for the video and image shoots.

Update: MacRumors has heard from a source that The New York Times itself generated high-resolution images of several of its pages, including Flash and ad content, in order to improve the look of the pages for Apple's use in iPad marketing materials.

One of the major complaints so far about Apple's new iPad tablet device has been a lack of support for Flash content, a limitation also placed on the iPhone. At several points during Apple CEO Steve Jobs' demonstration of the iPad at Wednesday's media event, the device displayed a "broken plug-in" icon on Web pages such as The New York Times where Flash elements were included on the page.

9 to 5 Mac noticed that demonstrations of Web browsing in Apple's iPad promotional video reveal properly loading Flash content on similar Web pages, suggesting either that the iPad device used in the video supports Flash or that Apple has manipulated the promotional video in order to hide the fact that the iPad does not support Flash.

AppleInsider followed up with a similar analysis also showing a promotional image of the iPad on Apple's site displaying Flash content from The New York Times. The newspaper's The 31 Places to Go in 2010 feature includes a Flash-based slideshow that displays properly on a Mac and in the iPad promotional rendering, but not on an iPhone, which lacks Flash capabilities as the iPad did during Wednesday's presentation and in the media hands-on that followed.

As pointed out by 9to5Mac, the 3G version of the iPad is pictured in Apple's online gallery and carries a cosmetic difference to the Wi-Fi version. The 3G version has a black plastic strip that extends to the top of the device and is visible from the front. This plastic is necessary to allow the 3G cellular signal to transmit outside the aluminum enclosure.

Such a cosmetic requirement was described by iLounge prior to the device's release, though they also believed the iPad would have dual dock connectors -- which it does not.

The Wi-Fi version of the iPad will be shipping in late March, while the 3G-enabled version will arrive in April.

Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg attended the Apple Media event where Steve Jobs announced the Apple iPad. Swisher has posted a video where Mossberg questions Steve Jobs after the event.

Mossberg brings up the issue of e-book pricing which was reported to be as high as $14.99 as compared to Amazon's $9.99. Jobs assured him that the prices would be "the same".

Meanwhile, on battery life, Jobs states that the iPad will have 140-something hours of continuous music playback (presumably with the screen off). Steve Jobs had said that the iPad would offer 10 hours of video playback during the keynote yesterday, and with one month of standby power. Some have already expressed doubt that the iPad could even achieve 10 hours of playback given the power requirements of the high quality IPS screen. Obviously, we'll get actual battery life testing information once the product is released.

The iPad was announced on Wednesday, and will be shipping in the next 60 days.

Bright Side of News claims to have information on Apple's "A4" chip unveiled as the brains behind the company's new iPad tablet device. Unsurprisingly, the CPU included in the chip is said to be based on the ARM Cortex A9 licensed by Apple and implemented by its team of chip designers acquired as part of its 2008 purchase of P.A. Semi.

While it should be no surprise that the Apple A4 processor is based on the ARM Cortex A9 design which will begin shipping to many manufacturers this year, the article incorrectly states that the Qualcomm Snapdragon and nVidia Tegra were also based on this design. Those processors were based on the Cortex A8 -- the same processor design found in the iPhone 3GS. This new potentially multi-core processor has only recently been introduced in the Tegra 2 first demoed at CES 2010.

The site also makes a dubious claim that Apple is using the ARM Mali 50-Series GPU for its graphics hardware which would represent a departure (and potential downgrade) for Apple from the PowerVR chips that they've used in the past. Apple is a licensee and major stakeholder in Imagination Technologies, the company behind the PowerVR chipset.

Amongst the varied reactions to the Apple iPad, one common impression has been the notable speed increase of the device compared to the existing iPhone and iPod Touch. We would expect Apple to adapt the A4 design into the next generation iPhone which is expected later this year.

Last week, we uncovered evidence of Apple seeking to trademark the "iPad" name in a number of countries, foreshadowing the name of Apple's tablet device announced yesterday. At the time, we noted that Apple had not applied for an "iPad" trademark in the U.S., ostensibly due to Fujitsu already holding a claim to the name there. Further investigation soon revealed, however, that Apple has filed multiple requests to extend the allowable time period for it to oppose Fujitsu's still-pending trademark application. In addition, an Apple shell company finally did apply for the "iPad" trademark in the U.S.

The New York Times reports, however, that Fujitsu does not appear to be going down without a fight, seeking to protect the name of its iPad device for retail inventory management.

"It's our understanding that the name is ours," Masahiro Yamane, director of Fujitsu's public relations division, said Thursday. He said Fujitsu was aware of Apple's plans to sell the iPad tablet and that the company was consulting lawyers over next steps.

The report notes that Fujitsu's iPad bears a number of similarities to Apple's iPad, including a color touchscreen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as support for VoIP calling. Apple currently has until February 28th to file its opposition to Fujitsu's "iPad" trademark application, although it could request a further extension with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Apple's choice of the "iPhone" name similarly stepped on others' toes with its announcement in January 2007, and Cisco quickly sued Apple upon Apple's iPhone introduction after negotiations regarding the iPhone trademark owned by Cisco and used for its line of Web-enabled telephones had not resulted in an agreement to that point. The dispute was quickly resolved, with both companies allowed to use the iPhone name.

On Tuesday, less than 24 hours before Apple's media event to introduce the iPad, publishing giant McGraw-Hill's CEO Terry McGraw confirmed that Apple would be introducing a tablet at the event. McGraw also confirmed earlier reports that Apple and McGraw-Hill had been working closely together on e-books, particularly e-textbooks, for the device.

McGraw-Hill's content was, however, nowhere to be found in Apple's presentation at the media event, and VentureBeat reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had immediately removed McGraw-Hill from the presentation after McGraw's disclosure on CNBC.

McGraw-Hill is bigger than most of the publishers on this slide. But insiders say as soon as Terry shot his mouth off on CNBC, Jobs had the company cut from the presentation. We won't know for a few weeks if McGraw was only wrist-slapped, or if he's been thrown out of the game.

The move is reminiscent of Jobs' reaction after a leak by graphics card manufacturer ATI just prior to Macworld San Francisco 2000 that revealed Apple's plans to introduce new iMac and Power Mac models using the company's graphics cards. In that case, Jobs reportedly pulled all mention of ATI from his presentation at the last minute, although the products obviously continued to ship with ATI products inside.

Update: According to Digital Daily, McGraw-Hill has denied that it was scheduled to be a part of Apple's media event presentation and that the company had advance knowledge of the iPad's details.

"As a company deeply involved in the digitization of education and business information, we were as interested as anyone in the launch of the new device, although we were never part of the launch event and never in a position to confirm details about the device ahead of time," Steven Weiss, VP of Corporate Communications for The McGraw-Hill Companies said in a statement given to Digital Daily.

According to Weiss, McGraw's speculative comments were simply rehashing the many rumors about Apple's tablet introduction and were misconstrued by others as a confirmation. Digital Daily also notes that its sources have indicated that McGraw-Hill had not seen a demonstration of the iPad prior to Apple's media event.

AT&T today released its earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2009, revealing that the company activated 3.1 million iPhones on its network during the quarter, just shy of the record 3.2 million iPhone activated in the previous quarter. The iPhone continues to be a major contributor to AT&T's "integrated devices" segment of smartphones, which have grown to 46.4% of the company's postpaid subscriber base and who continue to generate 1.8 times the average monthly revenues of traditional phone users.

Overall, AT&T experienced a net gain of 2.7 million wireless subscribers for the quarter, the company's second highest net gain in history. Over 4 million postpaid integrated devices were added to the company's base during the quarter, and while the activation of 3.1 million iPhones might suggest that Apple was responsible for approximately 75% of the total smartphone additions, the company has in the past noted that not all iPhone activations represent new devices sold. AT&T's "activations" term includes existing handsets transferred to new owners, making comparisons between new activations and device additions invalid.

Not addressed in AT&T's earnings release is Apple's new iPad tablet device. Apple and AT&T have partnered on the 3G-capable versions of the iPad in the U.S., with AT&T offering no-contract data plans for the device at $14.99 (250 MB) and $29.99 (unlimited) monthly price points. The 3G-capable iPad models are not expected to begin shipping for another 90 days.

One of the major surprises for many people with yesterday's iPad launch was the lack of a camera anywhere on the device. As noted by CrunchGear, however, the iPad simulator included as part of the newly-released iPhone SDK 3.2 contains references to the ability to take photos for addition to entries in the device's Contacts application.

Tucked away within the iPad's contacts application is an "Add Photo" button, purposed with.. well, adding photos. Everyone likes having photos assigned to their contacts, and there's more than enough space on this thing to sync photos of all your friends - so nothing too strange there. What is odd, however, is the prompt that pops up: do you want to "Choose Existing Photo", or do you want to "Take Photo"?

Unfortunately, the reason for the inclusion of a "Take Photo" option in the iPad simulator is unknown, leading to a number of theories. While it is possible (and maybe likely) that Apple simply ported much of the iPhone version of the Contacts application over to the iPad development tools and neglected to remove the "Take Photo" option, more optimistic spectators may be hoping that a camera could be added as a last-minute feature before shipping. Other speculation includes possible plans by Apple to include a camera in the iPad that were scrapped at the last minute as with the iPod touch last year or the potential release of a camera accessory for the iPad.