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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Tech / Books New iPad Rumors and Today in E-Books

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 3:21 PM

CrunchGear has a nice roundup of iPad 2 rumors, including what they think are the most likely rumors to be true. At the moment, they're thinking thinner and lighter, better speakers, with a faster processor, maybe an SD card slot, two cameras, and a ridiculously high-res (2048 x 1536) display. The iPad was announced around this time last year, but one has to wonder if Apple's announcement is going to come closer to April, when last year's iPad was actually released. That would mean another two or three months of speculation. Huzzah! And the iPad has been great for Apple. They just had a record-breaking first quarter, including 7.33 million iPads sold.

In other e-book news, Tele-Read brings news that an independent bookstore had a tutorial for their customers on how to use Google's e-books service. That's a smart idea; I bet a lot of folks who got e-readers for Christmas are feeling overwhelmed by their new devices, and hosting a free class ensures that at least a few of them will be buying books through your store's site.

If you don't live near an indie who's willing to teach the e-book game, BookBee has a pretty okay flow chart showing what your e-book options are, depending on which device you're using. Some folks will look at the relative simplicity of the Kindle line and decide they want that device; other people will look at the increased options of the other devices and go in another direction.

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iPad wont ever have an SD card slot. Never going to happen in a million years. iPhone, iPod, iPad, all walled gardens, Apple wants 100% control over what gets in and out of their devices, so the idea of a SD card is wishful thinking.

I bought a 10" 16:9 Android Tablet (Hong Kong import for 200$) and I must say, 10" is too big for the bus commute. Might be ok for the house or apt, but not for mobile use.

Posted by Kinison

on January 18, 2011 at 3:54 PM

@1 - Sure it could happen. Having an SD slot doesn't imply a hole in the walled garden, it just means you wouldn't need the "camera kit" anymore to download photos onto the device. Apple could easily provide an SD slot that can only be used to download photos from the card to the device, in the same way the camera kit is used now.

Posted by Anthony Hecht on January 18, 2011 at 4:11 PM

Or you can jailbreak the device in 10 seconds and get that functionality.

Dont worry, when Steve Jobs dies in a few months, the new CEO will probably allow for such cheap luxuries on the next round of idevices.

Posted by Kinison

on January 18, 2011 at 4:19 PM

The two cameras are for the smaller form factor and the 2nd is an option.

The SD slot is unlikely right now.

Xmas 2011 - 3D iPad - be there!

Posted by Will in Seattle

on January 18, 2011 at 4:43 PM

There's lots of pictures of iPad cases (macrumors.com) that look like there might very well be an SD card slot. So far the rumor is looking pretty good.

Posted by Simone on January 18, 2011 at 5:32 PM

@1: So why does Apple offer SD slots on MB Pros and the Camera Kit with SD slot for the iPad?

Posted by stinkbug on January 18, 2011 at 5:49 PM

@6

Oh, so you can copy files directly to the iPad, without having to go through iTunes? Seriously, dont need a single app, its built into the system. Just insert 16 GB sd card into the camera kit, copy and paste gigs worth of mp3s or mkv files bypassing iTunes or any of its third party clones? Out of the box, no jailbreaking, those devices can do that right?

Let me correct something here, I dont see Apple providing a MicroSDHC card slot, they make too much money selling you 16 gig upgrades for 99$ a pop, when it should be 40$. My MP3 player has a microSDHC slot, if I want to go from its default 4 gig to 20 gig, why its only going to cost me 30$ from Newegg.com.

Posted by Kinison

on January 18, 2011 at 6:13 PM