Apple Mac HQ

Many of the topics we write about at Apple Mac HQ are things that interest us, and hopefully you as well. While we certainly don’t mind writing for ourselves, we want to know what you want to read as well. To help us gather your writing suggestions, we’re going to test out Skribit.

Skribit is an online web service made for bloggers, by bloggers. Once you put a little javascript code on your blog, you’ll notice a “Suggestions?” tab on your page. Readers just click the tab and enter their writing suggestions. You can create an account on Skribit and follow your suggestion or post suggestions and vote anonymously. You can read much more about Skribit on their website.

If you have any topics you would like us to write about, just click the blue suggestion tab on the right side of our page and post your suggestion or vote on other suggestions. From time to time we’ll look over the suggestions and write about them. So what are you waiting for? Suggest away!

The speculation is over. After endless predictions, Steve Jobs finally unveiled Apple’s new tablet today at the Yerba Buena Center, dubbed the “iPad”.

Apple wisely is utilizing the success of the App Store. iPhone and iPod touch users will feel right at home as the iPad will be compatible with all iPhone OS apps. These apps can run in the same size as on the iPhone or scaled up to fill the screen of the iPad. Apple will be more successful with a tablet that is more iPod touch-like then Mac-like. Even with improving Mac sales, there is only so much penetration Mac will have on market share.

There will also be apps made specifically for the iPad. To show that the iPad is more then a multimedia device, Apple showed off a specially-designed tablet version of iWork. Keynote, Numbers, and Pages will be available for $10 each.

There will also be many great apps that are designed with the iPad in mind and will be bundled on the device, including Safari, Mail, Notes, Photos, iPod, iTunes, App Store, Maps, Calendar, Contacts, and iBooks.

iBooks is an app to read downloadable books in the open ePub format. iBooks will also have a built-in store to buy new books.

Pricing is far cheaper then I, as well as many analysts and bloggers, expected. The iPad will have a few different price points. The 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB models will cost $499, $599, and $699, respectively. These will only have Wi-Fi. Add $130 to any of these models to have 3G in addition to Wi-Fi. These prices are great considering that when the iPhone initially launched it went for $499 for the 4 GB model and $599 for the 8 GB version. The Wi-Fi only models will be out in 60 days, while the models with 3G will be out in 90 days.

The iPad has some nice specs. Weighing in at 1.5 pounds and 0.5 inches thick, the iPad has a 9.7 inch screen with 1024-by-768 resoution and fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating. The processor is a 1 Ghz Apple A4. Like the iPhone, there is an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and Bluetooth.

There will be man accessories from Apple. The iPad case protects the front of the screen and can be adjusted in numerous ways depending on the situation the iPad is being used in. There is also a regular dock and another version with a keyboard and dock combined, which will be awesome for those long typing situations and people looking for a big, physical keyboard to pound away at. There are 2 different adaptors to import photos. One adaptor will allow importing of pictures by hooking the camera up to the iPad via USB. The other adaptor is compatible with SD cards.

There are 2 data plans, both are through AT&T and neither involve signing a contract and can be cancelled at anytime. The first plan includes a measly 250 MB per month for $14.99, while the second plan is unlimited data for $29.99 per month. The unlimited plan will probably have a soft data cap and will not be truly unlimited. All data plans will allow for free usage of AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots.

Some may wonder why the iPad is needed. When using my iPhone, I am sacrificing screen size for portability. iPad flips the script, providing a great screen to view movies and books while not being as portable as an iPhone.

There are a few downsides with the iPad. There is no support for Adobe Flash, which stinks because many video sites support it. There is also no ability to run applications in the background, which is surprising given the CPU speed. Also, AT&T is the sole provider for cellular data service and they already have had a tough enough time handling the iPhone and other smartphones. “With the iPhone and other smart devices, we saw a 7,000 percent increase in data usage over the last 13 quarters” said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. Verizon is not a carrier for the iPad, though there were many analysts who thought they would be. With Apple going towards multiple carrier models in other markets with the iPhone, it would be surprising if Apple did not go that route in the United States eventually

Apple has clearly positioned the iPad as a middle ground between the iPod touch/iPhone and MacBook. It looks to be great for people who want to surf the web and view media, or for kids as a laptop instead of a cheap netbook.

Unless you have been on another planet, you probably heard about the special Apple event tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. The Apple event begins at 10AM Pacific in San Francisco, CA. Everyone article in the mainstream press pegs it as a given that Apple will announce a tablet of some kind. We know the tablet is coming, but what exactly will it bring? If it’s just a large iPod touch, I think a lot of people are going to be very disappointed.

I’ll be checking the action as it goes down live via Engadget. They have already setup a place holder for their live coverage here. We’ll have our own recap and reaction of the event after it’s finished.

David Weiss created a cool “Prediction Score Card” for the event tomorrow. You can download a copy here. If you participate in the score card, come back and post your score in the comments after the event. I’ve already filled mine out so I’ll post my score tomorrow afternoon.

Do you have any predictions you’d like to share? Use the comments below to post your ideas.

Sophiestication Software is celebrating the 3rd anniversary of its terrific iTunes companion application, CoverSutra, with a sale. Through January 27th you can get CoverSutra for $5, which is 75% off the regular price.

CoverSutra has many great features, including Last.fm scrobbling, spotlight-esque searching of your iTunes library from the toolbar, cover displaying on the desktop and the dock, and much more.

I finally made the plunge and purchased CoverSutra and am not disappointed. The sale price is valid for all versions of CoverSutra, including 1.2 for Tiger and 2.22 for Leopard and Snow Leopard. Free upgrades are available until version 3.0 is released.

I love to cook. Unfortunately that also means I visit the grocery store on a weekly basis. My typical grocery store visit begins like so. I look through a few cookbooks, cooking magazines and MacGourmet to find the recipes I want to make. After I’ve found the recipes, I head to the kitchen to see what ingredients I have on hand and what I need to buy. As I go through each recipe I write down what I need to buy on a small sheet of paper. Once I’m done, I take the list with me and hit the store on the way home from work the following day.

This week my routine changed for the better. Instead of writing down my list, I decided to test out the Groceries iPhone App from Sophiestication Software.

The very first thing you’ll notice about Groceries is that the UI is beautiful. The App is very responsive and you can tell a lot of thought was put into the design. After opening the App, you immediately begin adding items from the extensive default database to a new shopping list. Items can be added via a search or browsing by aisle. If you don’t find an item, it’s a simple tap to add it to the database.

Groceries makes it very easy to customize your grocery list. You can add notes and amounts to each item with just a few taps. You can add frequently purchased items to your favorites list for quick access. You can even email your list with ease. The ability to email the list is a nice touch in the event that you need to send your spouse to the grocery store instead.

Perhaps the greatest feature of Groceries is how your grocery list is organized. When adding items to your list you’ll notice they are organized by aisles. This small design decision leads to a huge payoff. Within each list, you have the ability to reorder the presentation of aisles. Essentially you can match up the aisles within Groceries to the layout of the grocery store you shop at. This allows you to easily see when you have finished shopping on a particular aisle and can move to the next one. I no longer have to continually scan my shopping list to make sure I’ve crossed off every item. A quick glance at Groceries will confirm that I’m done with that aisle and can move on.

This App has a ton of other fine detail. The ability to keep the list at exactly the same spot even if I lock my iPhone is a nice touch. A quick tap will reduce my list to just the remaining items, useful for long lists. I can clear out a finished list easily as well.

If possible, I’d like to see some kind of integration with MacGourmet or MacGourmet touch. I’m not even sure if that’s possible or what integration I’d like, but I’d be willing to bet the developers are smart enough to think of something good. Comments in iTunes also mentioned some type of indicator for coupons and I concur that would be a good idea. Maybe a little coupon icon right beside the item name.

Groceries (iTunes link) will set you back $1.99 and is available now in the App Store. After my first grocery store visit using Groceries, I can’t see myself ever going back to pen and paper. This App saves me time in the grocery store and that fact alone is worth the small price of Groceries. In fact, I’d say that this app is the best $2 I’ve ever spent on “Groceries”.

There are many moments in the day that I want to keep track of because they are special and memorable. A simple note taking app just will not cut it. That is where the diary app Momento, from d3i, comes in.

Momento helps record these “moments”. Moments can be described with text and/or images. Images can be from the Photo app or the iPhone camera. Any moment I enter into Momento can be tagged in numerous ways to make searching through them easier. These tags include people (which can be pulled from the Contacts app), places, events, and custom tags.

Some of my moments were not recorded in my Momento personal diary and instead were put on my social networking accounts. These “social moments” can be from Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, and Twitter. Momento focuses on my life and experiences so it only includes my posts and excludes what my friends have posted.

Momento will not replace full-fledged Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, and Twitter apps. This would make the app cluttered and it would lose its simplistic appeal. Momento does not allow tagging of social moments.

This app is very pretty. I am a sucker for a wood grain theme and Momento is filled with it. Each day of moments is viewed from a spiral notebook theme. A lot of attention went into the look of this app.

There were a few things I did not like about Momento. Only one of each type of account can be linked to Momento, so for instance I can only have one of my Twitter accounts. This probably will not be a problem for most since they do not have multiple accounts for each of these services. Also, moments that are deleted will only erase them from viewing in Momento, but it does not delete them from the social networking services. This is mainly because Momento is not meant to replace your main social networking apps. Other things I didn’t like include not being able to open URLs or enlarge photos to view them more easily.

Momento is a great diary app and I am excited to see what the future holds for it. Momento 1.0.2 is available now for $2.99 (iTunes link) and is compatible with iPhone OS 3.0 and above.

If you’ve been reading Apple Mac HQ for a while, it should come as no surprise that I like cycling. The 2010 Pro Tour starts today with the Tour Down Under in Australia.

The event organization has made it easy to keep up with the Tour Down Under with the Santos Tour Down Under App (iTunes link). The App features the latest news, images, stage maps, and more. Since the race just began, content is a little light but that’s to be expected so early in the race.

If you enjoy cycling events, download the Santos Tour Down Under App now. The race is being held in Australia from January 17-24, 2010. The Santos Dour Down Under App is a free download.