SpeedPlexer Blog

New iPad owners began downloading apps with internet speed.  In fact, Apple says that more than one million apps were downloaded before the weekend was over.  Here’s what was most popular on iTunes, with explanations from the NY Times BITS blog:

 - Adaptations of Apple’s iWork tools and others to give make iPad more useful and productive. They include Pages, a word processing application, Keynote, which allows users to create visually rich presentations, and Numbers, a spreadsheet application. Each sells for $9.99.

- Star Walk, a $2.99 astronomy application that morphs the iPad into a star chart. Pointing the tablet at the sky activates an internal digital compass, instantly locating stars, planets and other celestial bodies.  Tapping on an object reveals more information about it.

 - GoodReader, which for 99 cents handles a range of formats, including PDF files and high-resolution images.

 - SketchBookPro, $8.99, a sophisticated drawing application that lets users craft paintings with their hands, is also on the list.

- Games, like Real Racing HD ($9.99), a driving game that transforms the iPad into a steering wheel, and Flight Control ($4.99), an air traffic simulator that includes a level in 3-D, are both on the top 10 list. Scrabble ($9.99) turns the iPad’s glossy screen into a vivid playing board where multiple players can use their iPhones as their letter trays and “flick” tiles down to the main board for game play.

On the flip side, there are also those who aren’t quite so thrilled with their iPads. The New York Times BITS blog writers found these worth sharing:

Why I’m Returning My Apple iPad ($AAPL) — Social Times

On YouTube - Will It Blend? – iPad 

iPad teardown photos: Thank you, FCC

In case you weren’t paying attention, the iPad, that much anticipated new tablet device from Apple, has finally been launched so people can actually possess them and not just talk about them.  It happened on April 3rd, to much fanfare.  As is customary for Apple fans, people lined up ahead of time and triumphed once they had their shiny new toys in hand. Often bragging on social networking sites immediately thereafter.

The tech-reporting world was just as excited, if not moreso, with live blogging throughout the day and across the country.  Twitter was, as you would imagine, all a-twitter, with tweets like:

“The iPad and the Easter Bunny are battling it out at the mall to see which one can maintain the longest line. Both have screaming kids.”

And:

“$10 to first person who buys two iPads today, dresses up as Moses and comes out of an Apple Store holding them over their head.”

Then people started digging into the device.  In some cases, quite literally. The people at iFixit, a gadget repair site, were tearing apart their new toy by 11 a.m. to see what was inside and who made the various parts. And then the reviews started coming out, with people all over the world clamoring to be the first.

The general consensus seems to be that while it won’t replace a laptop, it is useful and fun for a lot of stuff, and it depends on what you need.  As people start to get to know the device better, we’re sure to see new apps and modifications that will fill in any blanks. One thing is for sure, the future has arrived with internet speed.

April Fools’ is a time-honored tradition in Silicon Valley. One blog tells of pranks like a VW Beetle, its engine running, in an exec’s office, like a ship in a bottle; or moving another’s office into a tank at San Francisco’s Steinhart Aquarium. In recent decades, April Fools’ Day in the tech world has become about spreading online jokes with internet speed sometimes even early for better publicity, but still, some are better than others.

This year TechCrunch’s joke alleged that Google had bought a company to enable it to design and build small mobile nuclear reactors. A Google spokesman told the L.A. Times Tech blog, “We appreciate TechCrunch’s early April Fools’ story but have no comment at this time other than to say that this has nothing to do with our exploration of marshmallows as an alternative energy source. They work for kids; why not for data centers too?”

Google probably has such a good sense of humor because it likes to indulge in pranks, too. Last year Google posted 12 pranks. This year, they announced that in response to the city of Topeka, Kansas changing its name to Google, KS, “Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.”

Google UK announced an app for Android phones called Translate for Animals, complete with a tour and a clever, funny YouTube video. 

Best of all, ThinkGeek.com has some joke products that I wish were real. Here’s a list of some of the items from their April 1st homepage. Clicking to buy any of them takes you to a page saying “Gotcha!”

• iCade iPad Arcade Cabinet
• USB PC Tanner - Your Desktop Fun-without-the-sun Buddy
• moodINQ programmable Tattoo system –subdermal designs that can change on a whim. Indecisiveness never looked so good.